The Lost Platoon: A Family's Beginning
by Ten AndABrain
Summary: A battalion of marines gets whittled down to no more than a platoon. Where will these combat veterans end up in the ongoing war with the Covenant? What will happen to these men and women? This is the first part of the story of this special platoon, purely about their origin. M for some strong language and blood, just to be safe.
1. Sighted

**"Sighted"**

The bridge of the U.N.S.C. frigate _Waterloo _was quiet but not silent, the hum of working computers mixed with the occasional mumble from one of the techs or officers, it was peaceful. The war with the Covenant had been raging for years as the U.N.S.C. was slowly being pushed back. It was the _Waterloo's_ mission to patrol the outer fringes of human controlled space and look for any sign of the covenant. That's why she was now orbiting over the colony of Brackoner awaiting the arrival of a second frigate, _San Juan_, as an addition to their patrol's firepower.

The _Waterloo's _Capitan drummed his fingers against the arm of his chair as he stared out the viewport. "As pretty as the view is, I am getting tired of watching the planet spin. Where is the _San Juan_?"

"She's just cresting Brackoner's western horizon" the lieutenant at the sensors station replied, "Her Capitan estimates they will be on station in twenty-five minutes."

The Capitan nodded his thanks to the lieutenant and looked around his bridge. Everyone was busy with their tasks, techs were checking up on maintenance crews around the ship, and officers were switching from screen to screen as they analyzed every system in the ship and scrutinized the space around them. One crewman looked particularly puzzled by what he was reading and kept shaking his head.

The Capitan stood and walked over to the man's station. "What seems to be the problem Ensign?"

The crewman shook his head again and said "I'm chasing a ghost sir. The slipspace rupture from the _San Juan_ jumping in system is shown here," he pointed at his screen "but I read a second rupture thirty-seven degree off their track. I tasked a sensor suit to scan that area but it shows nothing."

The Capitan felt his gut tighten as the possibility of a covenant ship passed through his mind. Before he could reply though the sensor's officer shouted "Sir! Slipspace rupture! Two-hundred kilometers off our starboard bow." All eyes were on the viewport as a new shape resolved itself in the space between them and the planet's eastern horizon. The knot in the Capitan's gut turned into ice as he recognized the sleek curves and glistening metal of a Covenant destroyer.

"Sound battle stations, warm up the cannon and arm the missile pods. Engines to full reverse; I want us to link up with the _San Juan_ ASAP. And send her a warning."

"Sir" The sensor's officer cried, "Destroyer's weapons are firing!"

...

Gunnery Sergeant Eric Donnelly took a deep breath as he left the barracks and held the clean air in his lungs for a few seconds, savoring the taste and feel of it. Even if he had been on the plant for two months fresh air always beat out the canned air of a ship, always. In his mind, of the eight years he spent as a marine most of he had spent cooped up on ships, breathing their fake air. It was good to be able to breathe _real_ air again, even if it meant babysitting a colony while the battalion rearmed and reorganized.

He finely exhaled with a sigh as he remembered why they were there. The battalion had seen some action and after several lengthy patrols and combat insertions they were at roughly three-fourths strength, including the walking wounded. So they were ordered to Brackoner for some rest- a luxury these days- and to reorganize. With only a handful of transfers and new recruits coming to them the Major decided to fold the heavy weapons and support company in with the other three. Now each platoon was twenty-five men strong and contained its own heavy weapons, adding a considerable amount of firepower to each of them.

But this move still harbored problems, the platoon commanders at first had no idea what to do with their new firepower or even how to use it effectively in the field. Endless drills and lengthy discussions with the heavy weapons soldiers brought everyone past the learning curve, tough they were still adapting. Not to mention how the combination had the support troops having to familiarize themselves with their new offensive and defensive roles. They were still learning but things had gone well so far and it was time to leave.

Eric walked through the afternoon sun and took in the sights while he could. A forest of firs and pines made a carpet of green past the fence to the east backed by purple, snowcapped mountains made for a picture perfect sight. A contrast of tastes, but not beauty, was the city of Vellum some five kilometers to the north. He was going to miss this place.

He passed the armory and motor pool where the men and women of Alpha Company were busy packing weapons, gear and personal items into warthogs as they prepared to follow Bravo Company to the spaceport in the city where they were to be ferried to the _Waterloo _and _San Juan_. Walking into the base's HQ he spotted Lieutenant Mixer of 2C talking with Capitan Flock and nodded in her direction as the officer looked his way. Scanning the room Donnelly found Lieutenant Elahi behind his desk studying something on his computer screen.

Elahi saw him coming and turned to look at his platoon sergeant. "Yes Eric?" he asked casually as he leaned back and scratched his short beard.

Eric smiled at his Lieutenant's friendly attitude. "The platoon is ready to start packing up, sir."

"Capitan," Elahi called across the room "Charlie third is ready to move.

"Be patient, Alpha is moving slow today."

The junior officer rolled his eyes in annoyance. "When do they ever move fast sir?" Smiling at his own joke he turned back to Eric. "Thank you. Tell everyone to hold on, they'll have their turn. Maybe run them through the shoot house a few more times in."

"Yes sir."

Stepping out of the HQ Eric ran his hand over his short red hair and looked back to the east, breathing deeply. He stopped short as he registered the ship moving slowly over the mountains. A sleek vessel with a hooked prow surrounded by dozens of smaller dark shapes that seemed to move independently of the ship. By the time he recognized the shapes he was halfway up the front stairs of the HQ. When he reached the door he grabbed onto the door jam in order to keep from running right into Capitan Flock. "Covenant Ship to the east! Banshees and drop ships inbound!"

Everything was quiet for a moment. The major stuck his head out of his office and looked out of a window facing east. Baring his teeth in a scowl that made him look more like an animal than a man he snapped out orders on the fly. "Tell Alpha to speed it up. Get Charlie out of the barracks and armed, I want them ready to knock anything over the base out of the sky. And call Bravo, Have them ready for action and start getting civilians out of the city. Gear up and get to it!"

Eric turned and sprinted across the parade ground toward his barracks as alarms began to wail all around the base. Sergeant Yambrick burst out of the building struggling to put a gun belt through the loops of this BDU bottoms.

"What's going on Gunny?"

"Covenant! Get everyone up and to the armory. Have all the shooters carrying extra rockets for the SPNKrs."

Yambrick nodded and went back through the door hollering at troops inside. Having said all he could for now, Eric made his way to the armory quickly. Passing by the motor pool he saw Alpha Company packing the hogs in a frenzy. Those that were ready were driven out onto the parade ground or the drive to the pool with gunners ready and waiting. He made it to the concrete bunker called the armory to find Lieutenant Elahi was already there handing out weapons and passing on munitions to some of the men from Alpha. He let a corporal take over as Eric ran up.

"The men are up and on their way. I said for every many to carry extra rockets." The Staff Sergeant reported.

"Good thinking. We'll need to-"The rest was cut off by a long burst from an M41 on one of the warthogs. More weapons fired as banshees screamed over the building and the sound of covenant plasma weapons entered the mix." We have to get everything out of the armory fast!"

Eric grabbed a launcher from one of the racks and shoved into the hands of a marine from Charlie third as he entered. Without slowing to think Eric handed a weapon, ammo and rockets to every marine that entered the building. Outside explosions boomed and the whoosh of rockets was answered by fuel rod cannons. But Eric went on clearing the armory as fast as he could. As long as there were marines or munitions the armory was a big and very dangerous target.

As he handed an assault weapon to another marine a portion of the wall to Eric's right crumbled in a flash for green light. The shockwave spread through the building and threw him to the ground. His ears were ringing, his head was swimming and he couldn't open his eyes from some time.

Dazed, he got to his knees and looked around. A fuel rod had hit one of the walls and now a portion had been blown into rubble. He couldn't quite see through the smoke but he knew some marines lay dead under that rubble. Closing his eyes to shake off both the dizziness and sorrow he felt a launcher shoved into his hands then he was pushed out the door.

The skies were full of covenant craft. Banshees sped around the base, looping and diving to avoid being hit, firing off plasma and fuel rods when a target presented itself. Phantoms threw fire down onto groups of marines. Eric winced, the Phantoms carried heavy concussion and plasma cannons and were tough to take down, a good mix for covenant firing platform. Several warthogs had been and destroyed, but many more were out in the open and firing, even more were still in the safety of the motor pool. He shook his head again and ran to his left, taking cover behind a burning warthog.

With a constant stream of marines still running in and out, the armory made a lovely target for covenant pilots and despite the best efforts of the marines, several banshees were making strafing runs on the building. Eric checked the launcher, flipped off the safety and sighted in on one of the vehicles lining up for a run. He held his aim for a few seconds, letting the rocket get a lock, then pulled the trigger. The pilot saw it coming and managed to roll out of the way, but Eric was already focused on another target. His second rocket hit the wing of another banshee and exploded, shearing off the wing and sending the craft crashing to the ground. He reloaded and fired another two rockets, then another two.

Reloading again by touch he was looking for another easy target when he saw something large move in the west. There, moving high over the plains was a U.N.S.C frigate heading straight for the covenant ship. As the frigate pushed itself over fields and forests the Alien vessel started to turn towards it. Then the frigate fired.

Eric's cheer could not be heard over the sound of the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon firing. The six-hundred ton ferric tungsten round reached a speed of nearly thirty-thousand meters per second before leaving the ship's cannon. Since it was in atmosphere the shot lost some speed but in the blink of an eye it traveled all the way across the plains and impacted the covenant vessel's side, causing the shields to flare. The _San Juan_ – her name clearly printed on her prow- sank closer to the ground hoping to put the covenant drop ships and fliers between them as she recharged her main gun.

Unfortunately the move didn't work as planned. The _San Juan_ had already been lower than the destroyer and the upward angle of the MAC round had lifted the covenant ship, which now had a clear shot at the top of the frigate. Plasma lit up the sky between the two ships and left several burning gashes in the frigate's side. To make matters worse for the ship, several banshees peeled off and headed for the frigate. Even with AI controlled defensive auto-cannons several managed to get close enough to use their heavy weapons.

Suddenly the frigate surged forward and passed over the marines' heads, leaving a cloud of banshees and falling debris in her wake. As she neared the destroyer the MAC cannon fired again and dozens of Archer missiles followed the shot. Again the slug hit the destroyer, this time near the engine. The combined momentum of the ship and the gun's acceleration pushed the slug to near forty-thousand meters per second. When it hit, the ship's shield flared and died leaving it vulnerable to the incoming missiles, and the slug itself put a massive dent in the destroyer's port engine.

As the missiles closed with their target covenant anti-missile batteries fired, destroying most of them but some managed to impact. Most of the ones that hit took chunks out of the destroyer's engines, but a few others hit elsewhere but only caused minor damage. But as the crippled ship sank to the earth it unleashed one last salvo of destructive energy at the _San Juan_, and at that range there was no way to miss, moving target or not. The front of the _San Juan's_ cannon melted and clogged, the bridge took a direct hit and was reduced to molten slag, and the port engine was nearly sheared off.

Eric's elation turned to horror as he watched the Frigate sail right over the descending Vessel and slam into the side of one of the mountains. Wide eyed, he stared at the wreckage in shock. After what felt like ages he managed to move his gaze to the covenant Vessel. It was falling slowly, clearly a controlled descent, but it couldn't hold itself up. Eagerly he watched it fall, waiting for it to show sign greater wounds.

"Come on you son of a bitch, break up, crash, explode, anything." He growled.

The ship continued to fall slowly, and somewhat smoothly, until it touched down out of sight at the base of a mountain. Eric snarled and held back a scream of pure rage. The crew of the _San Juan_ paid with their lived to destroy that ship and all they managed to do was ground it? It just wasn't fair. It didn't solve anything!

As if the universe wanted to prove him wrong, the phantoms over the base fired a few more shots, turned and headed east, back toward their wounded ship. Eric couldn't understand why. They had air superiority, why not attack now and scatter the marines while they were still off balance? _It just doesn't make sense_ he thought as the rage began to clear from his mind _We can't have… Shit, the banshees!_

The thought struck him as the air was filled with an all too familiar screech. He turned, rocket launcher at the ready and saw it, a mass of purple metal headed right at him. He began to pull the trigger but stopped when he saw the green blob fly from the banshee. He flinched as the fuel rod hit nearby and exploded.

...

**Sorry for the lack of action in this chapter. It's a stage setter more than anything. I promise it will pick up, there is a lot more to come. :)**

**And I'm going to ask for Reviews and ratings... please?**


	2. Ground Pounders

"**Ground pounders"**

Major Anton Delphi stood in the motor pool as he watched as over a dozen covenant drop ships headed east. The banshees were still harassing the base but their smaller numbers and the loss of the drop ships' heavy fire power meant that the marines could handle the dozen or so that were left. What he had to do now was to figure out what the Covenant would do next.

The alien commander had sent his air power to deal with the marines, even sending drop ships as gunboats instead of landing troops. While they had been busy the destroyer had been moving north, toward Vellum. To Delphi it looked like the covenant had planned to pin down the marines while they glassed the city. But now, with their ship down, all they had was infantry, meaning the marines had a chance to beat them back.

But where would they attack? Or would they be on the defensive now? _No, they'll attack. They always do. But where? Do they want to take care of us or the civilians first?_ He laughed to himself. _With a ship that big they're going to hit both._ He looked around the motor pool. Alpha company was still loading weapons and munitions into as many hogs as they could get running. The surviving member of Charlie company were spread around the compound watching the skies. One fired a rocket from his SPNKr but mostly the banshees were staying clear

He motioned for Capitan Flock and Capitan Walsh over to him. "How long until Alpha's done?" he asked as Walsh came to a stop in front of him.

"We lost a few hogs, no helping that, but we'll have everything ready to move in about fifteen minutes."

The major furrowed his brown in frustration. "Can you shave off any of that?"

The Capitan looked up, thinking. "No sir."

He let out a long sign then nodded. "Alright, see if you can speed it up at all. Flock, what's Charlie's status?"

"Twelve men dead and another eight wounded, but we're good for a fight."

The major smiled sadly. "I hate to say this but you're on security until we leave. With the ship down the covenant are going to launch a ground assault. Don't worries about the northern approach, Alpha's hogs will cover it. All we need is fifteen minuets. I'm guessing they'll be here in roughly ten."

Flock gave his CO a salute then nodded firmly. "I'll grab some of the wounded if need be."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Walsh said.

"Just concentrate on the loading." Flock replied then turned to the major "what about Bravo?"

"They'll hold the spaceport. Apparently there are several Shaw-Fujikawa equipped shuttles there. We'll try to get as many civilians off planet as we can before they get their ship back up, and trust me they will fix it. Which leads me to what we do once we're in the city. I received a message from the _San Juan_ before she went down, there were some ODSTs aboard. They were deployed to protect the settlements to the north and west. They'll be using the Mag Lev line to get civilians to Vellum for evac. We need to hold the stations as best as we can." The major looked pained about what he was going to say next. "We can forget about protecting the eastern station, the covenant have complete control of that line."

The two Captains looked away briefly. They both knew that two of Brackoner's larger settlements lay over the eastern mountains. The Mag Lev line was the fastest route to Vellum but nothing was going to cross through the covenant's territory and survive. There was nothing the marines could about it, but no one wanted to just write off thousands of human lives. All three officers didn't speak for several seconds.

"I'll get my men into position." Flock said weakly. He turned sharply and strode out of the motor pool.

...

Lieutenant Eva Mixer was picking through the rubble of what used to be the armory when her com unit buzzed. She straightened up and turned on her mike. "Mixer here." She was surprised how weary she sounded. She cleared her throat and said more firmly "Need something Capitan?"

"How… never mind." He sounded distracted and even wearier than she had. "The major believes the covenant will try and take the base with infantry. We're going to be holding them back until Alpha gets everything ready to go and we bug out. First is going to be holding the ridge to the southwest while fourth digs in to the west. With Elahi and Gunny Donnelly both down I want you to take second and third and cover everything from the base of the ridge to the falls on fourth flank. Got it?"

She nodded absently then realized he couldn't see her. "Yes sir. Can do." She said. She pulled out her tac pad as she switched her com to the platoon frequency. "Gunny? Round up everyone from third, we're taking care of them for now. Oh and let them into our platoon frequency."

"You got it ma'am."

She pulled up a satellite photo of the area and looked over the ground she had to hold. The ridge was the end point for a row of low hills that hugged the base's southern fence then turned northward. Anything on those hills could fire down on anything in the base without too much fear of return fire. Everything was thickly wooded until a creek to the south of the hills where the trees thinned out. The creek itself flowed around the ridge and headed east until it enters a gulley and shortly after went over a cliff wall and into a small canyon where the hills turned north.

"Ok people, I want the first section to cover the gulley, it may be tight but a Phantom can still fit in there. The second section will dig in on the north bank of the creek at the base of the ridge while one of the sections from third will dig in to their east. Then I want the remaining men from third to set up on top of the hills directly in front of the south gate." It sounded like a feasible plan. With luck, and a good amount of effort, most of her marines may survive. Still it was a large area to cover, even with forty plus soldiers.

"Ma'am," Gunny Lai's voice came from behind her and not from her earpiece. She turned to see him trotting up to her with a staff sergeant from third in tow. "Just where will you be when things get hot?"

She smiled at him. "You know me, always in the thick. I'm going to be with second on the creek on this one."

He beamed. "You're just going there so you can take a swim." He laughed a little at his own joke before becoming somber again. "In that case I'll be with first after getting the guys from third set up."

"Just what would I do without you Gunny?"

"I don't know, get lost in the woods maybe? This is Staff Sergeant Kostoff from third's second section… and their senior most noncom right now."

"Sorry for missing the briefing ma'am but I wasn't on your channel." His voice was oddly soothing for a senior noncom but his hard eyes, reflecting the light just like his bald head, expressed his true experience. She felt she could trust him to cover her back and flank.

"S'ok, which of your sections has the best marksmen?" It was obvious that he didn't like thinking of it as his platoon by the way he shifted his weight in response to the question. But his momentary uneasiness ceased when he looked her in the eyes again. She suppressed a shudder. _That is one hard stare._

"That would be first, ma'am."

"Ok, have them dig in up there" she pointed to the top of a hill to the south "and cover the creek. The rest will follow my first section down the hill and dig in along the bank where Gunny Lai tells them. I want everyone in place in less than five minutes."

He nodded firmly and left without another word. _Jesus, his eyes were cold. Almost like he's not even human._ She mentally shook herself, nodded to Lai and ran to where the second section was grouping up.

...

Bravo Company had already been at the spaceport when the covenant ship appeared. They watched in horror as the _San Juan_ engaged and damaged the destroyer while the frigate itself was destroyed. Now the company was split. First platoon patrolled the tarmac in some of the warthog they were supposed to load onto the _Waterloo_ while second held the front of the terminal with fourth set a block forward trying to keep the streets clear. Third, though, was helping the local police get civilians out of their homes and to the spaceport.

Everything was going well, if agonizingly slow. There had been some hysteria when the ship had appeared but things had calmed down by the time the marines were in position. But not completely, some looting as bound to be going on and a few fires had been started since the ship was downed. Still people were streaming into the terminal, even if they weren't happy about it. But they longer they took the greater the danger became. The covenant were sure to come back, and the loss of their ship wasn't going to help their temperament towards human. Not at all.

Lance Corporal Jonah Nelms Lay on his stomach on top of the terminal and watched the process through the scope of his SRS 99C-S2 sniper rifle. His eyes tracked along the faces of the crowd as he took in their expressions. Most were scared but many of the children just looked confused and some people just looked pissed. When his eyes crossed over one face in particular he stopped and took in her frame. _Redhead, great curves, amazing rack! Jesus, why couldn't you have lived a few doors down instead of here?_

He let out an appreciative whistle and muttered "Babe at twelve o'clock."

"What?" PFC Bailey said from right next to him.

"Just enjoying the view" He replied as he watched her enter the southern terminal and disappear. Disappointed he took his eye off the scope and looked at his friend. "Aren't you supposed to be watching the sky?"

"You're not the only one taking in the view."

"Idiot."

"I can't let _you _have all the fun, now can I? Oh look at her."

Nelms looked back through his scope eagerly. "Where?"

"Entering the plaza, near the phone store. She's hanging onto a big man with a beard in a green jacket."

Nelms followed bailey's directions and focused in on a family as they hurried toward the terminal. His crosshairs settled on the man then on the woman in his arms, correction, the _baby_ in his arms. "One of these days I'm going to kill you."

"but she's so _cute._"

"There is something seriously wrong with your head."

Nelms scanned the plaza again, but this time he saw Sergeant Lister glaring up at him from beside a parked warthog in the plaza below.

"Keep your eyes to the south," Lister said over the coms "and off the civvies."

"Sorry Sarge." Bailey actually sounded apologetic but when Nelms looked at him he received an evil grin from the PFC. But Bailey did as he was ordered and swung his spotting scope in the direction of the crashed ships. The grin was quickly gone from his face. "Phantoms inbound!" he cried.

Nelms looked over his left shoulder. Sure enough there were eight large dots with a few smaller ones mixed with the group moving in their direction. "looks like they have escorts, probably banshees. I think they'll be here in under a minute."

The Lieutenant's voice filled his ear. "Sergeant get the civvies in the plaza to the terminal and get the rest to cover inside the buildings. Gunners be prepared for targets overhead. I don't want a drop ship to hover over the plaza."

In Nelms' scope Lister and a few other marines moved forward to hurry people into the terminal and get those in the streets to the safety of the shops nearby. People were still scrambling for safety, in a none too orderly way, when the covenant ships reached the edge of the city. There the banshees sped ahead and made a beeline for the marines position. The phantoms though, split up. Four veered left from their course and headed for the city proper, two leaned to the right and made for the tarmac. The other two followed in the banshees' wake for the terminal.

Nelms managed to say "They're splitting up" before the banshees made their strafing run. Four of them flew over the plaza itself as another attempted to kill Nelms and Bailey on the exposed roof. Fortunately for them the pilot was going too fast to aim properly. Beneath them four chainguns opened up on the fast moving craft. With the exception of a few dings the banshees escaped unharmed.

The fliers had enough time before the phantoms showed up to make another pass, this time their aim would be better. But the civilians didn't know that, and a group of them exited the safety of a shop and made a across the plaza. Nelms could only watch in horror as the banshees circled around and stared their second pass.

The civvies had made it only a third of the way across the plaza when a marine got up and tried to move them back into the shop. The marine, Arlet if Nelms was right, was his in the side by a plasma cannon. The civilian in the lead stopped at the sight of the dead marine, he and the three directly behind him vanished in a green explosion. A woman who had been a little farther back rolled on the ground screaming, her cloths on fire. Nelms bit back a cry of despair and closed his eyes.

He heard but didn't see the M41s open fire again. The fliers were moving slower this time in order to target better, this also meant they were easier to target. Two for the machines exploded as they ran into the marines' fire, including the one that was lining up on the sniper again. Another glided away leaving a trail of smoke. But by now the phantoms had arrived. One came to a stop over the plaza as its gun tracked toward one of the hogs. There was a _chunk_ sound as the gauss cannon on the fifth hog hidden inside the terminal fired. The slug smashed the ships cannon and tore its way into the troop compartment.

The ship shuddered from the impact as the pilot pushed the craft higher into the sky, trying to escape the plaza. The gauss cannon fired again and put another hole in the ships underside. The second ship flew over the terminal and strafed what it could of the plaza, managing to slag the gun on one of the hogs. Nelms felt very exposed as the drop ship's shadow passed over him, but it was really behind him and had to shoot through the vent at his feet in order to reach him. Both ships moved away from the plaza and behind a cluster of tall buildings.

"Get those civvies to the terminal now!" The Lieutenant ordered. Those marines that weren't manning the guns beckoned for the civilians to move. Some did, but others needed a little more encouragement than shouting and waving after seeing unarmed people gunned down. But there was only so much time before the drop ships offloaded their passengers, and even with fourth platoon to slow or stop them time was of the essence.

The sound of faint automatic weapons fire reached his ears. It grew in intensity and was soon joined by the whine of plasma weapons. It sounded like fourth was putting up a good fight, but some of the aliens were bound to get through their lines. Nelms readied himself and put the rifle's stock to his shoulder. It wasn't long until Bailey spotted movement.

"Jackal! Two blocks down Parker."

Nelms found his target easily. The birdlike creature was in the middle of the street, standing over a human corps. The think kicked the body with one of its hooves the turned to fire on something out of Nelms' sight, keeping its blue glowing shield in front of it. Nelms put a round into its exposed back. The 14.5mm bullet tore through its skin, shattered its spine and went through a lung before finally exiting and bouncing off the inside of its shield. The inside of its shield was briefly painted purple before it flared and died.

A grunt, seeing its comrade fall, panicked and ran right through Nelms' sights. He pulled the trigger again put the large slug through the thing's chest, adding phosphoric blue blood to mix with the Jackal's. Now another Jackal was visible on the far corner, Nelms quickly moved to fire on it. He rushed the shot and the round tore up pavement at the things feet. It turned in time to stop Nelms' fourth shot with its shield.

"Damn it" he grumbled as he reloaded and sighted in again. Right then, anything on the streets that wasn't human was at Nelms' mercy.

...

Discouraged by the amount of firepower centered in the base and the open terrain to the north and west the phantoms stayed to the south. Two stopped at the base of the hills to the south east while another followed the creek and disgorged troops at the base of the ridge's western slope. The other three, however, disappeared behind the trees on the south bank of the creek and had never reappeared, leaving Mixer to deal with anywhere between fifty and ninety covenant troops.

So far there had only been a probe consisting of two squads of grunts and three of the birdlike jackals. It wasn't an all-out attack, just a group sent ahead to recon the marine's position. That didn't mean a firefight hadn't broken out between the dug in marines and their attackers. Three of the smaller alien's bodies lay on the southern bank, one with a tank slowly spewing methane from a bullet hole, and a jackal's corps had been washed downstream.

But the marines hadn't escaped unscathed either. A grunt had managed to lob a plasma grenade across the water and into one of the hastily dug firing pits, killing two marines. A third had taken a blast from a plasma pistol to the chest, and though her armor had protected her torso some of the plasma and splashed onto her neck. She looked royally pissed as a medic put a bandage on her neck.

Mixer sighed inwardly as she watched as the marines bodies were pulled from the shallow hole and covered with their own blankets. _Down two, and that was only to test our strength_. She looked at her watch, seven more minutes until Alpha was supposed to be ready.

The rattle of human weapons drew her attention to the right. She could barely make out the telltale sound of covenant weapons as they returned fire, things had started to heat upon the ridge. Looking back across the creek she barely glimpsed something move behind a tree. As she opened her mouth to raise the alarm a phantom rose above the trees and began to pour fire down on the marines' thin line.

Mixer ducked as the plasma rained down on their position but managed to glance at the far shore. Covenant troops, maybe two dozen or more. The mix of grunt, jackals and a few elites were moving out of the trees and into the shallow water. She considered the possibilities in a split second. If she let the enemy close the ship would have to stop firing in fear of hitting their own troops, allowing the marines to fight instead of hug the ground. But the elites made that a problem, they were tough in general and their shields had to be taken down in order to do any damage. Generally it took several marine's concentrated fire to kill one of the split lipped bastards, letting them in close was going to be a nightmare. It was either that or hold them at arm's length and suffer through the cannon fire.

"Don't let them cross the creek!" she bellowed before firing a five round burst from her MA5 at a grunt. The orange clad alien stumbled as one of the rounds hit its armor. Mixer mentally winced, The standard marine assault weapon was notoriously in accurate at long ranges and was only really good for close up work, but a skilled shooter could get several rounds to hit medium range. Most of the marines carried similar weapons but one or two in the section had one of the company's few BR55 battle rifles.

After two more bursts the grunt collapsed and she moved on to another target. She had to duck as a shot from the drop ship hit nearby. She continued to fire bursts at any target she thought she could hit until the ammo counter on the top to the weapon read 00. She cursed, though most of the lightly armored grunt may still be in cover on the shore some of the jackals and elites were already wading across, firing as they came.

The marine next to her gave a cry of pain as a pink glassy shard skipped off his armor and embedded itself in the open space between his left pectoral and shoulder. He reached up to grab it and pull it out but it exploded with a small flash, ripping the muscle apart and burning his hand. He fell over screaming a blood poured from between his fingers.

The elite responsible stood in the middle of the creek with a needle rifle at its shoulder, as if it thought the bullets couldn't hurt him. It watched the wounded marine squirm for a few seconds before choosing a new target. But as it sighted in on another hapless marine its shield flared and died as a large round hit it. Mixer followed the smoke trail of the S2 round up the hill to where some of Elahi's waited. The elite spread its jaws and roared, that was until a marine emptied nearly a whole clip into it smashing through its armor tearing through innards.

Mixer reloaded and emptied her weapon again and took the opportunity to quickly look around. The drop ship was still pounding away at their position and had managed to burn through one of the section's marksmen. A small group of jackals had made it to the north bank, two had already been killed but the others were keeping the marines busy as many of the grunts moved forward with the elites. The wounded marine at her side lay still.

"First section, start moving back up the hill."

...

Three hundred and fifty meter to Mixers east was third platoon's second section. The creek broadened here before entering the gulley and the hills shallowed out behind the marines as the high ground started to turn north. Because the smaller slopes and thinner trees made it easier for vehicles to move on to the base the covenant had dropped a pair of ghosts just short of the south bank before offloading its infantry.

But Staff Sergeant Kostoff didn't have his men close to the creek. Instead he and Gunny Lai agreed that setting up part way up the hill made more sense. The elevation gave them a better view of the south side of the creek, as well as their own side and the trees got thicker the farther up they went. Kostoff had even put the section's two snipers and only remaining man with a rocket launcher higher up so they could fire down into the marine's position if it came to hand to hand.

As the ghosts skimmed across the water and made it to the foot of the hill the snipers fired one after the other. The first round smashed through the front armor of the light vehicle, exposing the engine while the second hit the engine and flipped the vehicle smashing the driver to the ground and dragging him across the open ground, leaving a purple smear in the grass. The other ghost moved erratically as it fired up at where the driver thought the marines were.

The drop ship moved to fire on the snipers but received two rockets for its trouble, one actually hitting the forward armor and damaging the gun mount. The drop ship flew off to the east as the infantry began to climb the slope. The two snipers concentrated on the elites and several of the marines fired staggered bursts to keep the lighter units from moving too far up.

Kostoff smiled grimly as the covenant's advance slowed and the bodies began to pile up. He wished he had some battle rifles in the section, but the two he had left he had given to first section so they could be of a little more use to Lieutenant Mixer. But he was starting to regret his decision as he put the last of his clip into a grunt that had made it then meters from him. But only a few other aliens had made it that far, the rest seemed to be stuck farther down the hill.

He allowed himself to smile again. Dead and struggling covenant was always something that had cheered him up. But the sight wouldn't last for long, not this one at least. He looked at his watch after reloading, five minutes until alpha was supposed to be done. _Five minutes? No problem._ But then he saw that the covenant were no longer even attempting to advance. Before he cold even ask himself why he saw another wave of troops cross the creek. They had to have been from another drop ship, after all two of them had disappeared in the trees.

_Five minutes? We have a problem._ He primed a frag grenade and rolled it down the hill and sighed when it exploded, only killing a jackal. "Nasri! Get some rockets of those reinforcements before they get to cover."

The corporal complied and fired a rocket down the slope, re-aimed and fired another two seconds later. The first hit a jackal's shield killing it and the grunt net to it. The second was aimed at an elite, but the bastard rolled out of the way. It hit the ground twenty meters downslope and turned a tree's trunk into splinters. The large fir toppled and rolled down the hill, crushing another two grunts and a jackal that were too slow in getting out of its way and forced the ghost the move out into the creek.

"Jesus Nasri! Style points!" A marine called

The rocket jockey smiled at the remark but worked on reloading. Kostoff looked around, one dead and a few scrapes on a few others, not bad in his book. Then there was a frantic call on the coms.

"Moving back up the hill! Advise you start pulling back." It was Mixer's voice. With her moving back Kostoff had to worry about attacks coming from his right. The smart thing would be to send several frags down the slope and run back towards first section's position. But it was a long way to the safety of superior firepower, and that ghost could catch up real fast and do some damage.

Kostoff sighed again. "Lai," he said into his mike "Were going to be pulling back with the Lieutenant, watch your right and good luck."

He stood and started pulling the marines back bit by bit. _This trip is going to hurt. Bad._

_..._

"God Damn It!" Capitan Flock screamed and was happy no one could hear him. He'd run out of ammo for his MA5 and was down to using his pistol. The covenant had nearly taken the ridge on the first push. It had been costly to get them off the high ground overlooking the base. But now Mixer's second section had folded and was being pushed back toward the base. That wasn't a problem, the whole company needed to move back anyway, but the eastern slope of the ridge had been First platoons primary rout for retreating-and up until Mixer had been neaten back, their only one-.

Now though? Now First had to fight its way down the west slope and circle back around. But the drop ship had followed the second wave up, and that was going to be hard to get past. But that was what needed to be done. On his order what was left of first platoon started to move down the slope and into what Flock thought of as hellfire.

About halfway down an elite fired at him. The marine next to him took a knee and fired at the charging soldier. Flock added the rounds from his pistol to the mix. The Orange armored bastard's shields held off a lot of the damage. The marine grunted and fell, a smoking, charred hole burned through his chest armor. The Capitan fired three more rounds before the elite could turn to fire on him. With a pop the its shields died.

Flock pulled the trigger one more time to put a fatal round into the alien, only to have the pistol click empty. He screamed on last curse before the elite brought its plasma rifle down onto Flock's neck.

...

"God Damn It"! Gunny Lai screamed , his voice amplified by the gulley walls. They had managed to channel the covenant through the narrow gulley where the troops had to half walk half swim to get to the marines. Even though the jackals could form an extremely effective shield wall, there wasn't any where to go it a grenade came their way, which is exactly what happened time and time again.

But it worked both ways, and more than one of the marines had fallen victim to covenant explosives. But they were holding, barely. But Kostoff had been guarding the entrance to the gulley and if the section didn't get out fast they would be completely boxed in.

Ducking another plasma bolt that had come too close Lai said "One last group of grenades then we turn around and hoof it for the hill. Watch for enemies as we exit the gulley."

The section's last three grenades were primed and thrown. When they went off all seven of the remaining marines stood and ran upstream to the Gulley's mouth. Lai was the third out into the open and saw the tail end of a ghost disappear over the top of the hill. He took off up the slope, with any luck they might catch up to Kostoff. Halfway up he liberated a plasma grenade and chunked it in the general direction of the gulley hoping to scatter their followers.

They crested the hill and saw covenant troops trying to make their way up the opposite slope. Some turned and saw the marines running after them and began to fire. But now was not the time to find cover and fight it out, they needed to move. Each marine moved from cover to cover occasionally firing bursts all the way down the first hill and up the second, passing both alien and human bodies along the way

Near the crest of the second hill though Lai passed a burning heap of twisted metal he took for the ghost. On the top of the hill opposite of where they were now he could see marines firing down on the covenant below. But turning back he saw the brightly colored armor of their pursuers.

His marines rushed forward down the hill firing at everything that wasn't human. The dash up the last slope was the hardest on him. His legs felt like lead and his heard was beating right through his breastbone. But he made it to the top and managed to nod toward Mixer before collapsing against a tree. He had barely taken three deep breaths before Major Delphi came over the coms.

"Alpha's ready to move. All hands to the motor pool."

Lai only managed an irritated growl before he passed out.

...

Eric Donnelly felt himself being bounced around, hard. He took a deep breath and choked. The air was full of the smell of cordite and blood. The fresh air was gone now and he knew he wouldn't smell it again for a while. He tried to sit up but pain shot from his head as he tried to move it. He groaned.

There was a voice, it was too distant for him to hear the words. Curious, he managed to open his eyes. He was in the back of one of the troop carrier hogs as it bounced down the highway. There was another man on a stretcher to his right with a medic leaning over him. Rolling his eyes left he saw Lieutenant Mixer looking down at him.

She noticed he was conscious and managed to smile but there saw sadness in her green eyes. It took a lot to shake the woman, Eric knew that. For her to look like this….. it had to be _bad_. _Oh god, how many? How many did we lose?"_

She spoke after a while. "We're heading to Vellum to hold the spaceport there. Bravo's been doing well so far but they'll need the support." She looked at her booted feet for a few seconds. Eric could see it in her eyes, Charlie had a delaying force. But it wasn't a pointless waste of life, was it? She looked back at him and smiled a little more rightly this time, just a little. "Glad you decided that napping was a waste of your time."

Eric took a deep breath and closed his eyes. There was a hard fight ahead and he was needed for it.

"With all due respect ma'am, fuck you."

She laughed.

...

**Sorry if this chapter wasn't too clear, I was trying to get everyone into the city. It's going to get tougher for them there.**

**Thanks so much for reading**


	3. This Town

**Warning: This chapter contains some graphic scenes that might be unsettling.**

"**This Town…"**

An ungangly assortment of LRVs, gauss hogs and troop transports headed north toward the city of Vellum. Every surviving member of Alpha and Charlie companies were on one of the transports, but they had lost nearly three dozen marines since the covenant had appeared here on Brackoner. But they had a chance, at the price of the UNSC frigate _San Juan _the covenant ship had been damaged enough to have to go to ground. While the covenant still controlled the skies they no longer had to power to simply blast everything on the ground into oblivion, if they wanted to kill the marines and stop the civilians from leaving they had to do it with infantry.

But Major Delphi had a problem, not all of the civilians were in Vellum. A good number lived in settlements and small towns to the north and west of the city. There were also two large settlements to the east, but the covenant ship had landed between them and Vellum meaning the marines couldn't get to them if they tried. The good news was several ODST teams were deployed before the _San Juan_ was destroyed and were planning on sending people down the Mag Lev rail lines to Vellum. The problem was that Delphi's marines needed to hold the rail stations on the northwest and west as well as safe passage from the stations to the spaceport.

He raised his head from the tacpad and looked over at the marines he could see. It had been less than an hour since the covenant had arrived and already most of his men looked tired and weary but determined. Most of the casualties had come from Charlie company including Capitan Flock, their CO, and their third platoon leader, Lieutenant Elahi. They were exhausted from the holding action that had cost them so many friends. Could they do what Delphi needed of them? He didn't know, but they were all he had.

"Listen up people," he said over the radio "Bravo is holding the spaceport, they report covenant infantry in the city. We'll also have civilians coming down the Mag Lev lines soon, they'll need protection from there to the spaceport. Charlie, you're to dig in at the stations while Alpha keeps the streets clear. Med center and ammo dump will be at the spaceport. OOH-Rah marines?

A thin smile spread across his usually stern features as the marines repeated their battle cry. It may have lacked for enthusiasm by some but no one complained. By now they were passing comfortable looking houses and flat topped low rises as they entered the outskirts of the city. The column of warthogs split up and headed to where they were needed. Delphi's and a few others carrying the wounded and ammo steered toward the space port. This was their city, now it was time to let the Covenant know that.

…

The drop ships had come and gone once more since Arlet had died, they cruised over the plaza and managed to hit a marine ….. and a handful of civilians. Thank god Lister ordered the bodies pulled out of sight. The people were near panic as it was, seeing mauled bodies in the plaza could cause them to rush the terminal, or worse yet, freeze up.

Nelms had been raining vengeance on any of the aliens that he could get into his sights. But he and Bailey were forced to find another spot when a near miss had crisped his armor. Now he was crouching on the southern terminal's roof with his rifle set across a large air conditioning system. His finger tightened on the trigger and sent another 14.5mm round downrange and into side of a grunt's head. Once he was sure that the civilians the little bastard had pinned were safe with fourth platoon he relaxed.

He sat down and put his back to the ac unit pinching the bridge of his nose. He took off his helmet and scratched his short brown hair.

Bailey was still looking through the spotting scope. "Hey, you actually managed to hit one."

"There's a reason I'm the one shooting and not you."

Bailey looked over at his friend, concern on his face. "You should take it easy, on the ammo and yourself."

The Lance Corporal took a drink from his canteen before replying. "I'm fine."

"I'm more concerned about the ammo."

Nelms managed a weak laugh before falling back into silence. He looked out over the tarmac and watched as one of first platoon's hogs crossed the open ground near the far fence. As he watched, ground crews in bright coveralls opened the large doors to one of the cavernous concrete hangars and began wheeling out one of the shuttles. The two-hundred meter long craft were underpowered slow, but they were designed to simply take off, jump through slipspace , and land on another planet. He was just beginning to wonder why Vellum had them before Bailey spoke again.

"Five hogs just rounded the corner on parker. The covenant aren't trying too hard to stop them. Maybe we actually thinned them out?"

"Maybe, how many kills did I get?"

"I counted thirteen in the last five minutes or so."

He smiled at that but knew that each of those phantoms could carry up to thirty Covenant troops. _That's thirteen out of what, over a hundred? That wasn't the dent he was hoping for, but it was a start. _Though, to him, it didn't seem like fourth platoon could hold off that many of the aliens. Outgunned four to one they would have to have fallen back by now.

He shrugged. So the drop ships weren't carrying a full load of troops, that just meant that the marines' jobs were that much easier. Putting his helmet back on, he turned to look over the ac unit and out into the plaza. Civilians were still moving toward the terminal and there was no sign of any enemy activity at the moment, as odd as that was it was a good sign.

"Alright Bailey, back to work."

…

When the column of warthogs had split up the ones carrying the troopers from Alpha slowed as Capitan Walsh decided what to do. The city was a maze of streets and alleys and highways that held an unknown number of covenant by now. And while the Vellum Police Department and Bravo-third had started getting civilians to the spaceport, they simply couldn't cover all the streets. Alpha had to clear out the whole city as well as keep stretches of road, each more than three kilometers long, open and relatively safe. That was a tall order, even if they had help.

On his tacpad he had pulled up a map of the city and was now looking over any rout from the stations that would require fewer men to guard. At last he struck gold, about two kilometers from the spaceport was a larger circular plaza. This plaza had several streets running off it including and elevated highway that headed straight east towards Bravo's position and a short rout to each of the stations. That was the best he was going to get, it was close to perfect.

He relayed the coordinates of the plaza to each of his drivers and Alpha's column gained speed as it neared the beginning of Vellum's high-rises. Along the way they passed the chaos of civilians attempting to reach the spaceport as VPD officers tried to calm them down. At almost every intersection they saw looters running from store to store grabbing anything they wanted. And more than once they had to slow or stop in order to move passed abandoned or wrecked cars.

Closer to the city's center some of the obstacles were burned out cars, the plasma scoring told of covenant troops nearby. It wasn't long until they started passing bodies in the street- the drivers doing all they could to avoid rolling over them- and the marines began to actively search for the aliens responsible.

At an intersection half a klick from the plaza a woman jumped out from behind a burning car and ran across the street. The driver of the lead hog swerved to avoid her and slid around the front of the car she had appeared from behind, the back end fishtailing into a grunt that had been chasing her. The force of the impact pushed the alien's armor into its chest, shattering its bones, knocking off its methane tank and sending it flying down the street.

As the vehicle came to a halt on the adjoining street it came under fire. Bolts of blue and green plasma flew past the marines, some hitting the polycarbonate armor and melting small sections. The marine in the back swung the three barrels of the M41 around to face the two grunts and blue armored elite that stood in the middle of the street and depressed the trigger in a deafening burst. The first rounds hit the asphalt in front of the grunts and the marine fixed his aim still holding down the trigger. 12.7 X 99mm rounds tore through armor and shredded the grunts, leaving two heaps of ripped up meat sitting in expanding pools of blue.

Shifting the gun right the marine let go of the trigger and aimed at the elite and saw it jump to the side and roll behind a parked car. The warthog jerked back into motion, heading for the plaza. The gunner fired one more burst at the car hoping to hit the elite. The rounds tore through the metal frame and shattered the Plexiglas windows but he couldn't tell if any of the rounds had even managed to hit their target.

After eight more blocks-and a few more covenant squads- the buildings on either side gave way to the open air of the plaza. The road ahead of the column curved to the right and left, wrapping around a four story building that reflected the afternoon light off its large mirrored windows. A sign proclaiming the building to be the Vellum Police Department sat outside on the terraced garden. Aside from the walkway up to the entrance there were four ramps coming off the street that lead to subterranean parking areas. Coming off the turnpike were eight roads giving the plaza the look of the hub of a wagon wheel when seen from above.

Just like the rest of the city, the plaza wasn't empty. Several people wearing the uniforms of the VPD were on the gardens firing down on a large group of covenant in the street. Most were armed with handguns similar to the marines' but some carried shotguns and in a few cases M7 sub-machine guns. This assortment of firepower had left many grunts dead in the street but it wasn't enough to take down the jackal's and elite's shields. Slowly the more heavily armored troops were making their way closer to the building.

The marines in the first warthog in the line opened fire as the driver took them through a sharp right turn. The rounds sparked off of shields and cracked armor as more and more marines drove into the plaza adding their fire to the mix. An orange armored grunt leaped out of the way of an oncoming hog only to be crushed under the massive tires of another. An elite that wasn't paying too much attention ran in front of one of the vehicles. The front fender smashed into the side its chest sending it up over the hood and rolling off the back.

"Whoa! Watch it man, that thing almost took my head off." The marine riding shotgun yelled.

"Why don't you try ducking next time" replied the driver.

On the Capitan's orders the armed hogs continued to circle while the M831 troop transports pulled up to the building and the ramps, letting the marines bail out and take up positions with the police. The heavy firepower provided by the hogs in addition to the marines' own rifles soon turned the aliens' advance into a retreat. The last shots were fired as a bleeding grunt limped around a corner leaving mangled corpses of grunts, jackals and elites and a street now washed in blue and purple.

Walsh stepped down from hog and made his way up the drive to the building's entrance. Waiting for him near the top of the rise was an officer in riot gear, an M7 cradled in his left arm. Flipping up the visor on his helmet revealed shining dark eyes on a dark face. He held his right hand out to the Capitan.

"Capitan Derrek Bosi, Vellum Police. Thanks for the help."

"Capitan Robert Walsh." He said shaking the Bosi's hand and smiling. "And it was our pleasure. What are things like in the city?"

"After the ship went down the covenant started landing troops in the city. VPD started moving people to the spaceport, which some of your marines have been holding for the past hour. There's panic, looting and in some areas rioting, but we've managed to keep enough order so that the entire city doesn't fall into complete chaos. This building is where we coordinate between all the police stations throughout the city, and the covenant knows it."

"How many times have they tried to take the plaza?"

"You broke their third wave I guess. The other two were much smaller and broke easily. We weren't going to stop this last one."

"They were most likely probes." Walsh looked over his shoulder and saw his four platoon leaders coming up the drive. "They're going to come back, maybe with armor this time. We need to hold this plaza though, a lot of civilians will be coming through here."

Bosi nodded "It's practically the city center, all roads lead here. That's why the station was built here."

"Good." By now the platoon leaders had made it to the building and Walsh waved them over. "Ok, this plaza is where we are going to be taking the civilians from the stations before they go to the space port. It's also going to be out armory and aid station, so we cannot give it up. First platoon and a few of the VPD officers, if you're willing to spare them Capitan, will dig in and hold the plaza."

"I can spare them."

"Good. Now most of the hogs will stay here with first. Second will take six warthogs and two gauss hogs and hold the highway from here to the spaceport. Third will hold both roads coming from the stations, that's the west and northwest roads. I suggest that you have a few of the M831s to help move the civvies. Now I want fourth to work with Capitan Bosi here and help get people to this plaza or the spaceport. Take anything you need Lieutenant. Questions, comments, concerns?

"What happens if we lose the plaza sir?" Lieutenant Detrich, fourth platoon's commander asked.

"Keep the roads open and get everyone to the spaceport. "

"We won't lose it." The officer from first platoon looked grim and his jaw was clenched. The other officer remained quiet.

"Anything else? No? Just remember that there are going to be more troops inbound and maybe armor as well. Ok, get to work people. Lieutenant Del La Cruz, a word please."

The two of the walked along the building's wall for a few seconds before Walsh turned to the Lieutenant. He stood there for a while looking the junior officer up and down. He stood with his back strait, his arms behind his back. His jaw was still clenched and he looked at the Capitan with steely eyes.

"Ok Lieutenant, you're rigid, stiffer than usual. Just what is the problem with you?"

The Lieutenant took a deep breath before answering. "I'm just angry sir. I snapped and I didn't mean to."

"Just take it easy and loosen up."

Del La Cruz took another deep breath and closed his eyes. "Yes sir."

The Capitan patted him on the shoulder and walked passed towards the door. He took one last look at the Lieutenant before entering the building.

…

Private First Class Roman Kray watched the officers convene from the driver's seat of his warthog. The Capitan did most of the talking, which made him feel a little better because it looked like the Capitan knew what was going on and how to handle it. Then the officers broke up and Lieutenant Detrich came down the hill followed by a man in VPD riot gear. The two men stopped and the Lieutenant motioned for the platoon to gather around him.

"Alright, the Capitan wants us to go through the city and help the VPD wherever possible. We'll mainly be picking up Civvies and bringing them back here or to the spaceport. This means we'll break up by squads and be using transports. Since we'll be working with the locals we'll be using their frequency from here on out. Oh and Capitan Bosi here has ordered a few of his men to tag along with us."

There were a few groans from the platoon and Kray couldn't help but smile at that. He knew that the police _could_ slow them down and _might_ get in the way, but they also knew the city so the jury was still out for him. He just smiled at his comrades' complaints and stayed quiet.

"Oh quit complaining, we're helping them and they're helping us. That's how it is and you are going to suck it up and act like marines. First section is going to go south. We know there are a good number of covenant that way so each squad gets an M12 and a transport. Fourth, you get the north. The VPD needs some fire support up there so load up two of the M12s. Third herd is going to scour the city to the east, you're to pick up civvies and bring them to the port. Two transports."

The smile disappeared from Kray's face. _Two transports and none of the big guns?_ He didn't want to picture what would happen to them if they ran into serious resistance. He couldn't help be exclaim "what?"

"The Lieutenant looked at him "is there a problem Kray?". It didn't sound like a sincere question.

"Yes sir, there is. You're giving us the largest portion of the city to go through and no heavy weapons."

"Third platoon will be on the highway to the spaceport-"

"And most of our officers are in that area." Bosi cut in.

"Meaning you won't be far from help. So get out of that vehicle and find a transport Kray."

Kray bowed his head. "Understood sir." He slid out of the seat and waited for the Lieutenant to finish before moving any farther.

Detrich waited until Kray had stood still for nearly ten seconds before continuing. "Bosi will send some of his men to meet up with each squad. Get to it marines."

Kray slowly made his way through the moving crowd to the transport hog sergeant Ryan as loading his gear into. He avoided his sergeant's gaze as he climbed behind the wheel and shook his head. He felt the hog sway and looked over his shoulder as someone climbed into the back, it was Lazlo Vostok and another man in riot gear that joined the sergeant. The younger marine looked at the driver with an expression that said he thought of the M831 as rolling coffins.

Another man climbed into Kray's right, also in VPD riot gear. He watched the man laid a shotgun across his lap and take a deep breath. When the officer saw Kray eyeing him over he offered a weak smile and stuck out his hand.

"Officer Conklin, appreciate the ride Marine."

"Kray." He didn't shake the offered hand, instead he put the hog into drive and pulled into the Plaza's street. "Where to sarge?"

"We'll start in the northeast and move south toward the spaceport."

Kray checked that the other transport was behind them and followed the curve until he came to the northeast exit and turned right and out of the plaza. It was a silent ride for a while. The streets were empty of anything living, but abandoned cars littered the streets making the going slow sometimes as they had to maneuver the big jeeps through the clutter.

Six blocks from the plaza the silence was broken by a human scream and the sound of covenant weapons. Kray looked down the road to his left and saw a grunt's methane tank disappear into an open doorway. He swung the vehicle to the left and sped down the road to the building. He and Lazlo were the first out and to stack up near the door with their backs to the wall. Sergeant Ryan was behind Lazlo quickly and nodded to Kray.

He swung around the door frame, took two steps forward and one to his right MA5 at the ready. His eyes adjusted to the darkness fast enough to see the grunt on the stairs turn and raise its plasma pistol. Kray put a burst through its chest before it fired. Blue blood splattered the wall behind it but the alien was tough. Even with three rounds through its chest managed to make it back to its feet quickly. Lazlo put a second burst into it as he came through the door.

The room quickly filled with four marines-the other two staying outside with the vehicles- and the four police officers. After checking, quickly, that the lower area was clear they moved up the stairs in single file, Ryan in the lead. There was a landing halfway up where the stairs switched back and continued up. As Ryan rounded the corner a bolt of green plasma hit the wall behind him. He took cover behind the corner and snarled. Kray motioned everyone back when he saw the noncom pull a grenade from his vest.

Ryan pulled the pin and released the spoon with a metallic _clink_. He counted to two and through the grenade around the corner. There was a resounding _boom_ a few seconds laterand a grunts body rolled down the stairs. Kray though the blast seemed louder than usual, then he realized that the sound had bounced off the narrow wall. But knowing that didn't make his the ringing stop or his head hurt less.

Moving up they saw another grunt and a jackal had been killed in the blast at the top of the stairs. Ryan was first to the top and fired a few bursts at something Kray couldn't see. They spread across the second level and found another two jackals before going up another level. There was still no sign of whoever had yelled before. As the started up the stairs two grunts, both in red armor, rounded the corner on the landing.

Kray put five rounds into one as Conklin used his shotgun to paint the landing in the other's blood. They began to push up the stairs they had to move past the fresh corpses, and before Kray rounded the corner on the landing he noticed that orange patches shone through on the grunt's red armor.

He stopped at the top of the stairs and stood motionless until the man behind him pushed him forward. As the second man came up he gasped.

"My god" Ryan muttered.

In front of them were several human bodies. The walls smeared with fresh red blood and the carpet soaking up the rest. _They weren't veteran grunts, they were covered in blood. How many? Six? Seven? I can't tell._ Kray couldn't help but look around the scene of slaughter until his eyes came to rest on the blood smeared face of a young woman. Even with vacant eyes Kray could see the the fear and pain she showed on her face as she died. _How old is she? This isn't right, it's just sick._

By now everyone had made it up the stairs and stood in horror. Nobody said anything or even moved for what felt like hours. That was until some Lazlo slowly moved into the carnage and the sea of blood, examining the bodies. "Only some of them have plasma burns." He said.

"They used their fucking bare hands" Ryan muttered. It was silent again, no one able to turn away. "Let's go"

The marines and police officers slowly turned and headed down the stairs, one firing a few shots into one of the grunt's bodies. But Kray couldn't move. His eyes were still locked on the girls face, unable to look away or move. _What did these people ever do to them? Why did they have to die? This is murder, slaughter. This is sick. Sick._

"Kray, we need to go" Ryan said softly.

"Sick" Kray said so softly the he could barely hear it

"What?"

It was there in that room, staring at the mutilated bodies of the people he was sworn to protect that Kray froze. He had that same word running through his mind. He didn't move for a while, then doubled over and puked.

...

**This one took me a while, hope you like it.**

**R&R please.**


	4. Hold'em

**I do not own Halo or claim to have anything to do with cannon. But all the characters and events in this story are my brainchild and are not cannon.**

…...

"**Hold 'em"**

When Charlie company had entered the city they broke into two groups. First and fourth platoon headed west toward the larger of the two Mag Lev stations while the remnants of second and third dug in at the northwest station. After finding their way through the maze of streets on the outskirts of the city the hogs passed though the station's gate and came to a stop.

The station was mainly used for handling freight from the settlements in the north and northwest and its construction showed its utilitarian use. There was a dedicated polycrete terminal three-hundred meters long to the north of the gate. Three Mag Lev lines came in from the north and ended inside the building where heavy lift machines moved the cargo containers out of the building or onto a different track. There was a similar building west of the northern terminal where the two lines from the northwest ended.

South of the northern terminal was a row of large warehouses where the containers were stored when they were taken off the tracks. The row of warehouses ran from the northeast terminal all the way to the chain-link fence that surrounded the entire station. To the south was an open area used for loading cargo containers and trucks as well as a small parking area. On the eastern fence was the main gate, two sections of fence on a moving track that opened to a small guard shack, down a small road to the highway and on into the city proper.

There weren't any covenant at the station when they arrived, but that was going to change quickly. The remaining marines of second and third platoon left the gate open and parked their only gauss hog in front of it with two of their LRVs parked on either side of the road. Anything that came toward the gate would have to move through a lot of heavy fire. Three more hogs were parked along the Mag Lev lines three hundred meters from the station to prevent any covenant from landing in the open area past the terminals. The rest of the hogs roamed the area in front of the terminals and warehouses in order to discourage anything from flying over or landing troops inside the fence.

There was a sniper on the roof each of the terminals and one atop the eastern-most warehouse. The man on the northern building would provide support for the marines next to the lines while the other two covered the parking lot and the gate. To keep aircraft from attacking the snipers Donnelly had suggested having a marine with one of the SPNKr rocket launchers be on the buildings as well. With those six men in place each of the hogs only had a gunner and a driver that could dismount if need be.

With everyone in place, Mixer met with Lai, Donnelly and Kostoff inside the north terminal. The two Gunnery Sergeants both appeared haggard and tired, it wasn't too noticeable but Mixer could see it. Lai was standing strait and tall but his eyes were downcast, he was still angry at himself for passing out and pressed his lips into a tight line. Donnelly was still a little shaky from the near miss with the fuel rod cannon and leaned against the wall for support. He had become rather quiet since mixer told him about Lieutenant Elahi's death, leaving third platoon to him for the time being. Then there was kostoff. It didn't look like the day's events had affected the Staff Sergeant at all.

"Ma'am, everyone we have is in the best position we can get them. But we all know that it's going to be hell to hold this place with only thirty of us. Hell, if the covenant pushes hard enough there is not much we can do to stop them. And if we start moving a lot of people through this station, the bastards are going to come down hard, and with armor. We just can't hold back tanks ma'am."

Mixer right into Lai's eyes and held his gaze for three seconds before saying "I'm aware of that Gunny. But we are going to stay here and keep the lines open as long as we can." Her tone was hard and low but not openly hostile, still Lai lowered his head.

"I'm sorry, ma'am."

"Don't be, you were just saying what we were all thinking. But we do need to keep the loading area and gate open so the civilians can cross through safely. When will the first train arrive? And how are we going to clear the lines?"

"The first won't be here for another half hour. But once they start I'm guessing that they'll be coming in constantly. And because of the traffic I say we have all the lines taking in trams and container, and most of the will be cargo containers. Also, the station's mostly automated so the computer will handle the offloading. I just hope we don't overwork the thing."

Mixer looked around the terminal, studying the heavy machines. "So the machines take the containers off the tracks and move them out of the station? Why not just have them placed out along the lines? It'll at least protect our backs a little better."

"I'll see what I can do about that ma'am."

"Anything else?"

"No ma'am."

"There is something." Donnelly spoke up. Lai looked at him curiously, anxious to hear if he had missed anything. Mixer raised an eyebrow and Kostoff merely nodded. "While the fight won't really pick up until we start moving people through, there are going to be probes and maybe an attempt to take or destroy the station coming quickly."

"It's is rather hard to miss a group of marines this big." Kostoff added.

"Sounds about right" Lai agreed.

Mixer nodded at third platoon's leader and took one last look around the terminal before turning around and walking toward the exit. "Get to it gentlemen, just keep this place open."

…

Donnelly was right; it wasn't long before a banshee circled slowly around the station, outside of rocket range. Shortly thereafter the sniper on the west building reported seeing movement down the road. A ghost flew toward the gate with a clutch of grunts in tow. The rapid assault vehicle dodged the marines fire then veered to the right, following the fence north as the grunts moved from cover to cover toward the gate. The hail of fire from the M41s stalled the grunts' advance, dropping three of them between cover and the rest didn't move from where they were. By that time the elite driving the ghost had turned around and begun firing on the marines near the gate, concentration on the hog closest to it.

As the plasma hit and melted armor on the hog's left side, the gunner swung the weapon around and held the trigger down. The first few rounds tore of the dirt in front of the ghost, but the gunner swept the gun up and several hit the vehicle's bulbous front and dented the armor. The elite swung left and opened the throttle hoping to cut across the open area before taking any more rounds. He had only reached the road when the gauss cannon in the center fired with a loud _choonk_.

The sixty-eight millimeter slug hit low, smashing clean through the ghost's right wing before burying itself in the asphalt. The wing broke off and the ghost was pushed left from the impact, and when the left wing hit the ground the whole thing flipped, throwing the elite into the middle of the road. When they saw their leader fall the grunts began to panic, some running from cover barking in their high-pitched voices only to be gunned down by the gunners and the four marines on foot, Donnelley being one of them. One made a break for the still functional ghost and met the same fate as the others, but another ignited a plasma grenade and threw it as hard as it could.

The glowing blue orb arched through the air toward the warthog nearest the guard shack. The grenade landed below the front fender of the hog then detonated. In the few seconds between the grenade landing and exploding the gunner jumped from the vehicle and landed near the gauss hog while the marine near the hog dived behind the guard shack. The front of the jeep was enveloped in a blue flash and thrown off its front wheels, flipping over its rear fender before hitting the ground and rolling onto its side.

The grunt didn't live much longer past that. Donnelly put a long burst into the little alien, the bullets going through its chest and ripping holes in the methane tank as they exited. With the final grunt down and no other movement Donnelly motioned for the fallen gunner and two other marines to make sure they were all dead. As each marine neared a fallen alien they put another round through their heads. Near the middle of the carnage the elite lay spread out across the road, unmoving just like all the grunts. But when a marine approached it things happened very fast.

As the marine's shadow fell over the elite's face the alien kicked with its right, connecting with the human's shin and breaking the bone and forcing it out the back of his calve. It stood and drew its plasma pistol in one quick motion as a marine near Donnelly fired a panicked burst that was aimed nowhere near the elite. The man at its feet was holding his leg and screaming when the elite brought its foot down onto the marine's chest. He stopped screaming. By now the marines were sighting in on their enemy and it was the gunner on the gauss hog that fired first, sending the elite crashing to the ground missing half of its chest.

Donnelly rushed over to the marine on the ground, hoping what he knew to be true wasn't. He didn't so much as glance at the leg, it was obviously broken but the hit to the chest is what mattered. The elite had stomped right on the marine's sternum, snapping it off of the ribs and smashing it down into his heart. The ribs had also been forced inwards puncturing both lungs in several places. In short he had died long before anybody had reached him.

Donnelly looked away from the dead man's face and bowed his head. He'd seen many people die but he never became entirely numb to it. He was startled out of his brief mourning by a crackling in his ear. "What was that?"

"What's the situation?" Mixer asked over the radio.

"Covenant ma'am. Eight grunts and an elite on a ghost, all of them down. One of the little bastards threw a grenade and managed to flip one of the hogs. One KIA."

"I see." She honestly sounded regretful, at least as far as Donnelly could tell. "How bad is the damage to the hog?"

He looked at the flipped jeep. Though it was on its side it was not on fire and the gun hadn't been torn off from the tumble. Nothing on the turret seemed to be bent or broken, the ammunition belt was still hooked in. The front was worrisome. The bumper had been ripped off and the headlights shattered by the concussion, the hood had be warped and bent and the windshield was cracked. "The gun looks like it will still work, but I don't know if the engine will turn over again."

The Lieutenant sighed. "We only need the gun for now. Just hold the gate Gunny, The first container is almost here."

Donnelly nodded even though he knew she couldn't see the action. "Yeas ma'am." He watched as the dead marine was bagged and carried through the gate, past three more marines as they started to flip the warthog back onto its tiers. The first of the civilians were coming and that was sure to draw a lot of attention. His eyes followed the bag sadly as he thought of how many more were going to die.

...

The activity in the Police Plaza had quieted down since Alpha had scattered. The roughly sixty marines and officers had dug in a maze of firing positions on the terraced gardens, looking down onto the turnpike. Lookouts were posted on the corner of each street only a short sprint back to the firing line outside the building while the snipers moved into the upper floors and divided the plaza amongst themselves. Lieutenant Del La Cruz had ordered all four of the ramps to the parking section blocked off from the road by a transport hog and all the gun hogs moved to the lowest terrace. The plaza would be almost impossible to take with only infantry, but tanks would cause some serious problems.

The Lieutenant was walking around the the dug in positions and looking over the marines' shoulders. He only did that when he was stressed and that made the rest of them nervous, and nervous troops made mistakes. PFC Ariel Vik was one of the more jumpy ones and her shoulder's tensed as Del La Cruz strolled passed her position. The police officer beside her chuckled when he had passed.

"Does he have that effect on everyone?" He said smiling.

"Not always." She murmured back "He's never walks around like that, he's worried."

"And you're worried because he's worried?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Its never good to see the authority figure start to crack. Well not crack, he still has his head but you just don't want to see them show signs that we might lose."

"Well, we will be draw a lot of covie attention..."

"And we all know that. We know that we'll be hit. We know we'll lose people. It's just disheartening when we see people start to give in to that fact."

The officer thought about that for a moment before nodding slowly. He nodded once more, firmly as if to psych himself up then looked back out to the turnpike. Vik wondered if she had freaked him out with the 'we'll lose people' part and was working up something comforting to say when the officer flashed her a smile. "I see what you mean, but what we may lack in heart we make up for in fire power."

Vik couldn't help but laugh a little at the statement. It helped ease the tension but she knew that seventy assorted small arms, a few snipers, chain guns and rockets wouldn't do much good if the Covenant put their weight on the plaza. One of those mortar tanks would blow huge holes in the firing lines and hunters could create gaps of their own if the marines couldn't concentrate on them. But she had a low polycrete wall between her and the southern road, that was at least a small comfort. Maybe, just maybe the rest of the battalion would spread out the aliens enough to keep any one position from being hammered.

The Lieutenant was on his fourth circuit when the southeastern lookout called in over on open frequency that he had seen at least one Phantom moving slowly over the streets a few blocks away. Shortly after that, The marine watching the street to the north reported movement.

"What kind of movement?" Captain Walsh inquired.

"I couldn't tell sir. I just caught a flicker in a store window about two blocks down."

The captain grunted. "Alright, stay put and keep an eye out. I need someone with a scope to get a better view."

"Moving." There was a lengthy pause as a sharpshooter changed positions in order to see down the north street. "There is nothing on the street leading into the plaza but I can't see down any of the side streets. There could... wait one." There was a bare two seconds of silence before an S2 rifle boomed above Vik following the sound of a beam rifle discharging. "Sir, Jackal snipers in the buildings. I saw at least three before one spotted me and took a shot."

"Any more covies?"

"Can't tell sir, I'm moving."

"Alright," Walsh said over the open channel "everyone be aware that there are covenant snipers in the area and more than likely some infantry are lurking about. Everyone keep an eye out and shoot anything that isn't human. Lieutenant Del La Cruz and Captain Bosi I'd like to see you." There was a click as he switched comm channels.

Vik pushed herself a little lower to the ground so now only her eyes were above the wall. Wondering how her company was doing she spared him a glance. He had tensed into a crouching ball of quivering muscle and he had begun to breath a little more heavily. When he saw that she was looking at him he attempted to smile but couldn't quite make it look natural. "Are you ok?" She asked.

"I'm fine, just... snipers?"

"Don't worry, we have our own snipers to take care of them. Just worry about keeping anything inhuman away from the building." She reached out to pat the officer's shoulder and another one of the S2s fired off a round, then a second. Both of the discarding sabot rounds left smoke trails on their flight from the gun, across the plaza and into the third story window of an office building looking over the human position. The hardened plexiglass cracked and flaked making it impossible to see through that window anymore.

Shortly afterward another sniper fired to the northwest, putting several rounds through almost as many windows. The sniper fire went on for a while, humans shooting at any movement and the the Jackals taking a few shot of their own. It turned into a shooting match between the two groups with the men and women in the plaza pretty much caught in the crossfire. And even though a few or the carbine rounds and beams came close to ending someone's life no one was hit. The same could not be said for the snipers. Since the four sharpshooters had much less space to shift around in than the Jackals it was much easier to track them down. Over the course of the twenty minute shooting match one of the marine sharpshooters was hit by a carbine while changing positions and the other marine and one of the officers were killed by the covenant snipers.

But the aliens' numbers had been thinned enough that they gave up on harassing the plaza and left only two snipers behind to take a few pop-shots. It was in one of the gaps between the Jackal's infrequent shots that a shadow passed over the plaza, then another and another. Vik took cover behind the wall again as the Phantoms began to fire down on the humans. Each of the dropships hovered over a separate portion of the plaza and began disgorging troops while covering them with the forward mounted plasma cannons.

Vik let the heat of a near miss wash over her before she stood and turned to face the turnpike. One of the phantoms had dropped two clutches of grunts, each with an elite in charge, six jackals and another three elites almost directly across the plaza from her. She picked out a red armored grunt and steadied her MA5 on the wall before firing a short burst into his direction. The first two rounds dug into the asphalt at the grunts feet and the third punched a hole it's methane tank. Vik snarled and pulled the trigger again, ripping off a much longer burst. Most of the rounds went wide but the first few flew true and cracked through the grunt's armor and made a mess of the alien's chest. One of the grunt's comrades fired at vik but hit the wall causing her to duck.

She looked back over at the officer near her. He was standing behind the wall firing his pistol quickly and the ground between them was littered with casings and three empty clips. When his gun clicked empty once again she reached out and pulled him down to her level. "Slow down and stop wasting your ammo. And when you get completely behind the wall when you reload."

She let go of his shirt and looked over the lip of the wall. A few of the covenant in front of her lay in the street bleeding out or already dead but most were still pushing toward the marines' position under the cover of the dropship's gun. One of the hog's guns opened up on the plasma cannon and several rounds sparked off before it tracked around and poured fire onto the warthog, melting the gun and what was left of the marine to the frame of the vehicle. But the fire from the M41 diverted the fire long enough for one of the platoon's rocket jockeys to line up the turret and take it out.

Finally free of the dropship's fire more of the defenders were able to fire on the advancing infantry. Vick picked out a jackal that had dived in order to avoid being hit by bits of falling turret and fired burst after burst at it. Satisfied that the birdlike alien was mangled enough to be near death she picked out another grunt and put the rest of her clip into it . She ducked down in order to reload when a plasma grenade soared through the space she had just occupied and landed a bare two meters from her.

"Shit!" With her left hand she gripped the lip of the wall and half jumped and half lifted herself over it. She hit the ground with a thud that knocked the wind out of her and was staring at the sky, gasping for breath when the grenade went off. Her chest felt tight and her lungs screamed for air getting more painful with each second. Finally she was able to take a ragged breath, easing some of the pain. Taking stock she realized she'd dropped her rifle before jumping over the wall... two terraces up.

She wondered how she had fallen that far. She must have jumped to far and hit the edge of the second terrace and rolled down to the third. The she realized that id she jumped down two terraced she was on the first level. She got back into action as a grunt that had survived the long enough to make it off the street climbed onto the garden. They both were taken by surprise at being so close to their enemy but the grunt began to aim his plasma pistol at her.

Adrenaline spiked in her veins as she saw the weapon level with her head. She lashed out with her left and and knocked the gun out of line before bringing her right leg close to her chest and kicked the alien backward. She got to her knees and grabbed at it's mask and began to pull. Seeing what she was doing the grunt began to flail and clubbed her in the head with it's massive forearm. She ducked her head in order toward off most of the blows, hooked both of her hands into it's mask, put her foot on its chest and pulled.

The mask came off with a pop and the grunt was forced back again. It righted itself and stared at Vik with beady behind a cloud of yellowish gas. It bared it's teeth and charged. She used her left arm to ward it off but it bit deep into her forearm, blood seeping from between it's teeth. Screaming in pain and rage she drew her M6C and put shot after shot into it's chest. It let go after the fifth round tore through it and fell on it's back dead. Vik used her uninjured arm to pull herself to the next terrace.

An officer reached down and pulled her up to the next level and sat her down behind a large rock. She looked down at her arm and and saw her uniform was already soaked through with blood and if flowed freely from the series of holes the grunts teeth had put in her and down her hand. Corporal Draxton, one of the platoon's marine's who'd taken the corpsman's course, rushed over and gingerly looked at her arm.

"word of advice Ariel? Next time don't let the damn thing bight you." He said as he pulled out a can of biofoam and filled the wound with it. She bared her teeth and held back a grunt from the pain. "On the other hand it was kinda badass." He said with a smile and patted her on the head. "All patched up."

"Wait." She said grabbing his arm before he moved on. "We have any spare rifles?"

His smile faded. "I think we can spare a few." Vik knew what he meant and couldn't help thinking the dead won't need them.

…

"That's another load of civies safe." Bailey said as he watched another of the shuttles take off and speed off for space. Two others had already taken off, each with over five-hundred civilians aboard. They only had to worry about covenant air units causing the shuttles trouble on takeoff because the phantoms couldn't catch up when the main engines got up to speed and the destroyer, though not destroyed, hadn't fired at the fleeing vessels. But mostly they were heading north in order to avoid the downed covenant ship.

"I kinda wish I were with them." Nelms replied looking away from his scope to watch the shuttle leave. He had to rub his eyes in order to bring it into focus, looking through the scope for a long time played hell on his eyes.

"Yes I do brother, but the longer we stay here the more people can leave this place safely."

"Needs of the many versus the needs of the few. And right now we are the few." And indeed they were fewer. The covenant had organized an attack shortly after the Major and the wounded from the base had arrived. Fourth platoon was forced back to the front of the spaceport by an infantry advance while first and second were hit by a coordinated air assault by Banshees and Phantoms. The covenant had even managed to land a few troops on the tarmac and damage one of the shuttle. The company had held firm and pushed the aliens back but had lost four warthogs and over twenty marines in the process. Major Delphi made sure no one mentioned the number of civilians that had died and Jonha thanked him endlessly for that.

"Heads up, dots in the east." Nelms moved his rifle at Bailey's request and spotted the dots. Zooming in he saw they were phantoms headed in their direction pretty quickly. Before he called it in he noticed that three of the dropships underbellies were bulkier than the other two, but he couldn't tell with the difference was at the current range.

"Sarge, I have eyes on five covenant dropships headed this way."

"Define 'this way'"

"Strait at us."

There was a click as Lister switched com channels and there was silence for some time before Major Delphi came onto the all hands channel. "everyone dig in and hold tight, we've got covenant air incoming. Get ready for another fight and get those civilians to some cover." Before he even finished the marines were finding overhead cover and the civilians in the open were scurrying for the terminal.

"I think it's about time we found our own hideehole." Bailey said quickly moving over to the edge of the roof before jumping down to the next roof over and crouching beneath the overhand of the higher building. But Nelms didn't budge. He stood watching the dropships approach trying to figure out what the bulges were . They had just reached the edge of the tarmac when he recognized the shape.

"Holy shit, tanks!" He managed to call before jumping for his hide.

…

Vik had found another rifle and was trying to avoid using her left arm as the platoon and the police held against what remained of the assault force. The remaining elites and jackals had refused to retreat until most of their number had been killed. The action ended when a handful of elites and jackals pulling back from the plaza and disappearing down side streets. It had been quiet since then except for a few jackal sharpshooters sticking around and the occasional probe. Other than that it was just a random stream of civillians moving through the plaza.

The sun was starting to set when Del La Cruz and the ranking police officer were called in to meet with Captain Walsh (Bosi having been hit by one of the sharpshooters). The Lieutenant seemed to be in a hurry to get to the Captain and the meeting itself was short. But right after the two men reappeared they began making a circuit of the defenses and talking with everyone under their command. Vik was with Draxton and a Private by the name of Samenhauser when Del La Cruz made it over to them.

"How are you three on ammo?"

"Haven't run through it yet sir." Draxton answered for the group.

"Good, you're going to need it. Major Delphi was on the com. Apparently several dropships made a run at the spaceport and did some damage but didn't stick around to offload anything. The kicker is that three of them were carrying tanks and all of them headed this way."

"But you've been walking around since you go the word." Vik spoke up "Shouldn't they have hit us by now?"

The Lieutenant flexed his jaw and took a moment to hold back another outburst and calm himself down. "It would seem that they are scared we'll knock off the tanks before they are dropped if the set down here." He ground out." Best guess it they are using another plaza or boulevard to set them down safely and make their advance."

The three marines did the mental math and all came to the same conclusion. "That doesn't leave us with much time does it?"

"Not much at all. Just be ready for armor."

"Yes Sir" they chorused.

When the Lieutenant had moved on the three of them looked at each other in a combination of concern and consent. They needed to know what the others were thinking. With a stiff nod to Samenhauser Draxton dropped down from the gardens and started dragging the body of an elite over to the terrace where the Private was waiting to help heft the corpse up. Meanwhile Vik made a circuit of her own and began bargaining for all the ammo and weapon's trades she could. She came back to the position the three of them were holding with a BR55 battle rifle in lieu of her MA5 and a half empty case of grenades. By then Draxton and Samenhauser had managed to pull up two elites and a grunt to add to their cover, tossing the aliens' weapons in a pile between them.

"I hate to admit it but you boys might have done better than me. Since the LT told everyone most of the guys locked down on the heavy weapons. I managed to score five more grenades and this." She said hefting the Battle Rifle.

"We managed to sneak two plasma rifles and a plasma pistol up here before everyone else caught on. We also have four plasma grenades." The young Private reported.

"I guess that's the best we can do. Now we hunker down and wait for the bastards."

"But these things really stink Drax."

"Hey, stink or die. It's up to you."

After some more bitching The three of them settled in behind their mixed cover of rocks and corpses, none of them much enjoying it. After a few more moments of tense silence the defenders heard a familiar hum and all eyes immediately went to the sky. There they were, two unencumbered Phantoms flew over the plaza from the east and split up, one flying the north and the other south. Both moved slowly around the Police HQ pouring fire onto it's defenders and slagging the hogs in sight.

But the Phantoms didn't stick around too long. After the two vehicles had circled the plaza once and broke off to the east. When the defenders peeked from their cover they weren't all that surprised to see covenant streaming into the plaza from the northeastern, southeastern and southern roads. And somewhere in that mix of inhuman bodies, not yet clearing the buildings into the plaza, were three of the covenant's wraith tanks.

Vik set her Battle Rifle across the chest of the dead elite she was using for cover and set to work as the plaza exploded into the biggest firefight she had ever seen. Plasma stitched scorch marks across the walls of the police building and burned holes in the already destroyed garden as bullets tore troughs into the asphalt and bounced off of shields. Each side was losing people fast as unshielded grunts were torn to shreds and unlucky marines were hit by plasma and needles. But the marines had cover and the covenant were stuck in the open and were taking a lot more casualties than the humans.

She was enjoying the ease of laying behind cover and dropping anything she got her sights on. A group of jackals were moving slowly forward with their shields held in front of them to ward off any fire. She smiled wickedly as she saw the shields didn't cover the aliens' hoofed feet and took careful aim. The 7.62 X 51 mm high velocity rounds shattered the center jackal's foot and it fell on it's side knocking the aline next to it out of line. Several of the human defenders saw the gap appear and poured fire into it, dropping another four.

The shooting spree didn't last, though. Vik was blinded by a flash in her scope and squeezed her eyes shut as the ground beneath her shook as a blast wave rolled over her. She opened her eyes and was blinking the dots out of her vision when she saw a blackened crater at the edge of the gardens, shimmering with heat. No one had been hit, but no one was meant to, Vik knew it was a ranging shot from the tanks that were now entering the plaza.

She instinctively reached for the only weapons she had that would help against armor, the grenades. She glanced over at Dtaxton who gave her a thumbs up, then crouched and sprinted across the open garden to a low wall on the middle terrace. She found herself crouching between two of Vellum's police officers dressed in riot gear and one of the platoon's rocket jockeys. One of the officers had his eyes shut and was saying a silent prayer while the other peeked over the wall and kep the marine up to date as she loaded her rocket launcher.

Vik looked over the wall and saw the tank hovering over a hundred yards away, well into the plaza, and it was strafing to it's right in their direction. "it's circling toward us." she said then yanked the marine with the rocket launcher down as she tried to rise. "Wait for it to shoot again then take it out. You don't want to make yourself a target when that thing's gun if fully charged." The other marine nodded and stayed crouching with the launcher at the ready.

The marine heard the tank fire once more and stood, bringing launcher up with her. Vik watched her aim then fire a rocket. Her eyes followed the fiery exhaust and she stood to track it all the way to the tank when the marine fired off the second rocket. The first of the 102mm rockets hit the wraith low on it's forward armor just to the right of center, it exploded pushing the tank backward and taking away some of the armor. The second flew higher than the first and hit where the tank's plasma gunner would have been. But the gunner wasn't there and the rocket blasted through the think wall between the gunner's station and the driver's cabin and exploded, killing the elite driving it and forging pieces of the propulsion system off of the back.

Vik smiled and patted the marine on the shoulder before sprinting umping down to the next level and sprinting to the drive up to the building and taking cover behind the building's front sign. The thick stone took a few hits as she came to a stop behind the sign but nothing came close to hitting her. While she crouched there, getting ready for another sprint, the ground beneath her boots shook violently and hot air washed over her back. She steadied herself on the sign and looked over her shoulder.

The low wall the rocket jockey and the two officers had been using for cover was just gone, the center of a blackened crater. The grass for several meters around the crater had been burned away and a patches of it were still burning instead of smoldering like the rest. Peering through the shimmering heat Vik couldn't see any sign that the three humans had even been there, not even bone remained.

Time and sound held no meaning for her. She froze, her vision tunneled and centered on the smoking hole. Then in her mind the image of the crater turned into her grave, one she was supposed to be in. Only a few seconds and...

She was forced back into reality by an incessant banging on her helmet. She jumped when she felt it and kicked herself mentally for zoning out like that in the middle of a firefight. There was another hit on her helmet and she finally looked up to see Gunny Haft's scowling face looking down at her.

"Get your ass up and moving Vik!"

"Sorry Sergeant!"

"Get up! We only have one gauss hog left and I know you can shoot."

It took what he was saying a while to sink in so Haft grabbed the collar of her fatigues and dragged her to her feet. "Where?" she managed to gasp.

"Just follow me marine."

The senior noncom turned on his heels and crossed the drive and jumped town to the lower terrace. Vik did her best to keep close to the Gunny but had a few close calls leaving he armor slightly crisped. He came to a stop behind a rock near the edge of the road and Vik could see a gauss hog on it's side with two marines taking cover from a large group of covenant behind it. Vik immediately put her battle rifle to her shoulder and put burst after burst in the alines' direction just to keep their heads down.

Haft took the opportunity to drop down onto the road and get the other two marines to help him push the warthog back upright. The jeep's wheels came down onto the asphalt and the hog bounced several times before one of the marines pulled himself up into the driver's seat. Vik picked herself up and dashed to the back of the hog. Haft gave her a boost up to the gun and she pressed the activation button as the vehicle jerked into motion.

There were still two tanks to deal with and the driver did his best to avoid fire as he steered them toward the northern most tank. They passed in front of groups of covenant troops and it all Vik could do was hold on tight to the gun and hope she didn't get hit. The screen on the gauss cannon flashed to life as the gun finished charging.

"Gun's up!" she yelled to the driver "Give me a target."

The hog sped around the police building and Vik held onto the gun so tight her knuckles turned white. Then she saw the tank hovering slowly back from the defender's position and around the building. And had a shot at the lighter armored rear. She pressed the firing stud and felt the gun shudder as the sixty-eight millimeter slug crossed the distance between her and the tank faster than the blink of an eye. It hit the back of the tank and blew off the armor, exposing the engine for a fatal shot.

But the cannon had to recharge. It was up to the driver to keep them intact long enough for Vik to get a second shot. So he moved the hog so it was between the building and the tank, blocking off a good portion of the infantry with the body of their own tank. Unfortunately for them the wraith's operator had other ideas. The much heavier alien vehicle accelerated toward the hog and would have crushed it between itself and the rise of the first terrace if the marine driving hadn't locked the wheel to the right and fishtailed the back of the hog out of the way. The wraith missed by less than a meter and it slammed into the wall of the terrace as Vik got over the sharp turn and fired into it's unarmored engines.

The slug smashed the engine and tore its way through the driver's compartment and was stopped by the forward armor. Not that shooting all the way through mattered, the driver was dead and the engine released all it's energy in one a purple fireball. But now the hog was in the open again and taking fire. As quick as the driver was at getting the warthog moving again, the fire was just overwhelming. By the time they were getting up to speed a grunt let go released the trigger on its overcharged plasma pistol.

The overcharged burst hit the warthog's back bumper and melted most of it to the frame as the magnetic envelope burst and stalled the jeep's engine. The jeep's momentum kept it moving forward, closer to one of the blocked off of ramps to the parking are. But the driver had locked the wheel to the left so the rear end spun around and hit the troop transport dead on.

The Sudden impact was enough to send Vik flying backwards and broke her grip on the cannon. She flew over the transport hog and into the ramp... mostly. Her left foot hooked onto the transport's roll cage and pivoted her toward the ground. From the moment the warthog had begun to slide Vik knew she was going to die and she was scared of what would happen when she hit something solid. She wondered if it would her. Then the back of her helmet slammed into the ploycrete ground and she slid deeper into the parking garage, her world black.

…

Lieutenant Eva Mixer Stepped out of the hog when it pulled up to the western terminal. The marines at the Mag Lev station had held off several attacks, Donnelly's men at the front gate had to deal with the majority of the covenant's attempts. And Mixer had been forced to send him more men as the row of body bags became longer. She pointedly didn't look across the parking lot to the line of bodybags, but she couldn't help but but be sad at their deaths and feel a little responsible. As far as she cared, any good leader should.

She'd made it a point to personally greet each of the cargo containers in the terminals in hopes that she could keep the civilians calm and tell them what the plan was. From there a few cars were taken from the parking lot and the civilians were stuffed in and escorted out by marines from Alpha. Though the lot had run dry of cars with the last group and Mixer hadn't figured out what to do with the new arrivals.

The massive container had slowed to a stop and been locked in place by the time she had entered the building. She stood with her hand behind her back and feet shoulder width apart, the very picture of parade rest just in front of the door. She was still mulling over what to do about transportation when the door opened and she was frankly taken aback. Instead of wide eyed civilians spilling out onto the platform mixer was greeted with the sight of black armored ODSTs. One of the first ones out made a straight line toward her and gave her a quick salute.

"Gunnery sergeant Geoffery Dees, one-hundred and fifth ODSTs ma'am. We're the last group taking the rails."

"Did you get all the civilians through first?"

"As many as we could find. Didn't have any covei trouble either, the arrogant bastards didn't drop any troops outside of Vellum. We'll be riding with you to the spaceport."

"Good, my guys are have been run ragged and are bone tired. Having you guys around will help."

"Happy to help." The ODST replied blankly. Mixer looked right at the silver faceplate wishing she could peer inside and see the man's expression. The lack on any tells from the senior noncom made her nervous and feel like the conversation was entirely one sided. She was spared from making the next move by Lai coming over the command frequency.

"Ma'am switch over to the battalion frequency, you need to hear this."

Without a word she complied and the ODST stood watching her listen to whatever was on the radio. He was interested to know what was being said but didn't know the frequency the battalion was on. Besides, he knew the Lieutenant would keep him informed. But he didn't think it was good news by the way she blanched. She said something on the air that he didn't catch and went right back to staring him in the eyes.

"You have good timing Dees. We just lost the city center and the Major has ordered a full recall. Everyone is heading back to the spaceport."

…...

**Thank you so much for reading this far. I'm sorry it took me so long to add this chapter but life is unpredictable.**

**I also didn't intend on making this chapter so long which is why I thank you so much if you read all the way through that.**

**My thanks go to ChaoticCrazy for submitting the character for Gunny Dees.**

**Please respond and rate my writing, I'm anxious to see how I managed to screw up this time. XD**


	5. Recall

**I do not own or claim to own the rights to the Halo franchise. This is a fanfiction based off of Microsoft co.'s product and most of the events in this story are non-cannon.**

**...**

**Recall**

The sun had set to Vellum's west and night was creeping along on the heels of the dwindling light, but the day was long from over. The remaining marines of Charlie company's second and third platoons with their ODST allies were still holding the northwestern Mag Lev station. Mixer had called her council of war again, with the addition of Gunnery Sergeant Dees, inside the western terminal. She watched as the four noncoms looked over the only map of they city they had on their tacpads.

"We can't go strait for the highway, the covenant may have left troops in the police plaza." Lai pointed out "I say we divide the hogs and-"

"No. We're all tired and losing our edge. I don't think any of us would survive going through the city if we divide our firepower." Donnelly interrupted.

"I assume that splitting up means splitting my Helljumpers as well" Dees cut in taking both of the other senior noncoms by surprise. The ODST hadn't said a word since his introduction to Mixer and had moved his men around the station before the meeting was called. Since then he'd taken off his helmet and was watching Lai with dark brown eyes.

"That was the idea."

"I'll be honest, my boys are not going to want to take orders from regular marines."

"What are you getting at?" Lai asked narrowing his eyes.

The ODST stuck his thumb over his shoulder toward the door and set his jaw. "I thought you should know that most of them have a disdain for anyone who doesn't drop like we do. It's nothing personal Gunny, call it a professional preference."

"'Professional preference' my ass! This is not a time to be picky, and if your maniacs" he jabbed a finger at Dees "can't understand that I have to question just how good of soldiers they really are."

Dees just looked at the Gunnery Sergeant with the same stare as before. It wasn't disdainful or even blank, more on the line of reserved and professional. Lai on the other hand was absolutely livid, he was even shaking. Kostoff put his left hand on Lai's shoulder and gently pushed down his extended hand. "Stay cool, Gunny. We need you frosty." he said quietly.

"Besides," Donnelly continued neutrally "even if we don't split up your men are going to be mixed in with ours. It has to be done, We've been in combat for nearly ten hours and we are beginning to feel it." He gave a hesitant nod in Lai's direction and the second platoon's noncom nodded in agreement. Everyone was quiet for a moment then Dees cleared his throat.

"I didn't mean that my guys wont take orders from you. They are soldiers after all, not a group of maniacs with guns, and respect the chain of command. They just react better if their field orders come from another ODST is all."

Lai took a breath and looked Dees in the eye. "I understand, they trust people who have gone through their training more than almost anyone. I'm-"

The ODST put up his hands, palm out and offered a smile. It was the first real change in his expression since any of them had met him. It was a warm smile that was mirrored in his eyes, a genuine smile that took Lai by surprise. That is what stopped the gunny and not what was said. "It's ok. I've been on long ops myself and seen it before. No hard feelings on my end." Then he sobered and the smile slowly vanished from his face. "But we still have the actual problem of how we're going to move."

"We don't know how many covenant stand between us and the spaceport, where they are or if they even have tanks in the city limits." Lai stated, getting back on track.

"We know that last one." Kostoff corrected looking around the group. "Before Alpha lost the Police plaza three tanks were flown into the city. Since then another three dropships carrying wraiths have been spotted from the spaceport."

"Six wraiths?" Donnelly asked. "Why haven't they put all that force into taking the port? With armor and the dropships for support Bravo won't last long."

"Maybe their commander is an idiot." Lai put in hopefully.

"If only we were so lucky." Dees said with a sigh. "Odds are some of the tanks that hit the plaza were destroyed, so not all of the six are moving around. With the armor in the city and the control of the highways gone your major is doing the smart thing and pulling everyone back to the port in order to hold out as long as possible. Maybe the split lip in charge is trying to heard us all together."

"Regardless, I don't feel good about dividing our firepower with those tanks around." Donnelly said.

"But moving together makes us a bigger target." Lai retorted.

"We only have one gauss hog left and three SPNKrs for over thirty soldiers. Not a great arsenal as it is, worse when you split it up."

"I have to side with him on this." Dees said motioning to Donnely to his right. "A few sharp eyes in each group isn't enough to get you through indian country."

The three gunnys looked to Kostoff and the short marine threw up his arms in surrender. "I'm going to stay out of this. Besides, the LT has the final call."

"That's right." Mixer spoke for the first time since laying out the situation. She uncrossed her arms and chewed on a fingernail while she mulled it over. After looking over the map on the tacpad and weighing the options she let out a grunt and nodded to her noncoms. "We're going into the city with as much concentrated force as we can muster. Gunnery Sergeant Dees, I want you to take two gun hogs and act as point and recon. Six of your OSDTs are going to be blazing the trail. That leaves us two more gun hogs and a gauss for defense. I want Dees' men driving and on the guns while we cram everyone else into transports, I think we can do that with three. Thats eight hogs all together and enough firepower to at least hold off a wraith. We are leaving in no more than ten minutes."

…

Gunnery Sergeant Geoffrey Dees stood behind the M41 chaingun waiting for the Lieutenant to give him the go ahead. She was alright for an officer, most of the ones he knew just screamed orders and expected men to follow them. They didn't deserve his respect and he never gave them any. But this Lieutenant mixer wasn't like them. No, from what he could tell she was the sort that lead from the front and asked for only what she knew her marines could do.

Which was why he and his ODSTs were handling all the big guns as well as point. Her people were exhausted and needed to rest otherwise they would start making mistakes, big ones. She knew that they couldn't handle too much more so she handed the jobs that required sharper eyes and minds to the still fresh Helljumpers. She was thinking smart and trying to keep her people alive and Dees liked that. But he was also somewhat surprised.

These marines had been fighting off the forces of a covenant destroyer for nearly twelve hours now with no air or armor support. They'd held their ground until the _San Juan _ had dropped it's contingent of around thirty ODSTs to the north and west of the main city then downed the destroyer itself. They'd rolled into the city under fire and taken key points and held them as well, all the while Dees and his men rounded up stray civilians without a shot being fired. He'd seen the line of black bags when he arrived but he'd also seen the piles of covenant dead and knew that the ODSTs would have been hard pressed just to hold the station and the fact that these marines, tired and unsupported, had done it was something to respect.

The Lieutenant caught his eye and made a twirling motion with her hand above her head. It was time to leave and meet the rest of this amazing family of marines. He leaned past the gun and patted the driver on the helmet and pointed forward. "Time to go."

As they pulled out through the main gate and past the remains of covenant vehicles and soldiers he couldn't help but think of the other platoon of Helljumpers that had dropped farther south. Have they made it to the west station already? Are the marines there as capable as the ones he was with? Had they run into trouble? _I'm sure they're fine_ he thought to himself _absolutely fine and in good hands. _Truth was, he didn't believe himself. With Phantoms and Banshees roaming the skies and enemy tanks hiding in the city anything could happen.

The night was settling in as they roared past the warehouses around the station on their way to the city proper. The buildings were widely spaced and the road was strait and open, not a very likely place for an ambush. _Then again _Dees thought, _Infantry wouldn't do much here but a Phantom or a Wraith could block us in. The only way out would be back_. He looked back at the warthogs following the trail blazers at a distance before going back to watching the road.

He was surprised that they hadn't run into any trouble by the time they reached the first of the highrises. If the covenant were herding them, then it would be the best idea to hit all the humans on the move instead of when they were behind their defenses. But still there were no covenant. It was block after block of empty streets and darkened windows. That was until they made their first turn.

Mixer's "war council" had decided unanimously that taking the highways was a bad idea that would lead to a lot of burning warthogs. So, instead, they decided to take a little more of an indirect rout. It may increase the time they were in the open and able to be hit but it kept them below the covenant's radar. Or at least they hoped it would.

In truth their rout lead them right through a covenant staging area. In the time since the police plaza had fallen the covenant had been landing Phantom load after Phantom load of infantry in the city. The street that Dees' gun hog turned down lead right into a small plaza where the buildings opened enough to let a dropship land without any problems. But he and his men were in luck since the last load of troops had moved out a few minutes prior to the human's arrival and the dropship hadn't returned yet. All that was left was a holding force.

But it was a holding force with Shade turrets.

The moment the ODSTs in the hogs saw the plaza they were taking fire. The building on the corner on the left side of the street had a patio overlooking the plaza that extended out above the street. Sitting on that patio, in a perfect position to watch both the plaza and the street. By the time Dees pulled the gun around his warthog had already taken a few hits, including one that hit the windshield causing it to opaque.

Dees started to fire then the gunner from the other hog joined in, each having to constantly aim higher as they sped straight at the gun emplacement. The shade was taking hits from the heavy bullets but most were sparking off of the metal frame. But as the jeeps came closer the grunt shooting had to choose which one to follow and shoot since the gap between the two vehicles was widening. When the alien swung around to follow the one in the lead it showed the open side of the Shade to the second hog. Seeing this opportunity the gunner held down the firing stud and tore the grunt to shreds.

Their reception in the plaza itself wasn't any friendlier as two more shades divided their fire and causing them to run through a gauntlet of fire from the infantry. Dees picked out an elite in blue armor that was dumb enough to stand in the open, aimed at it and held down the firing studs. It seemed surprised when it's shields flared and started to roll out of the way when the shields gave out and the chaingun rounds chewed through it.

"Circle the plaza once and thin these guys out." Concentrating on the nearest turret. "Hit the Shades and all the elites you can see."

He smiled behind his visor when the area around the shade went dark, it had stopped firing for now. The smile vanished when a sudden jerk to the left had him clinging onto the gun for dear life. He look over at the driver just in time to see another blue armored elite disappear under the front fender. When the driver stoped the tight left turn and Dees could breath again he managed not to tear bit the driver's head off. "I didn't mean literally hit them."

"I saw an opportunity and I took it."

"Just give a little warning next time."

They had only made it halfway around the plaza but the covenant fire was dwindling to nothing. There were bound to be several left alive but not enough to bother Mixer's group. Dees tore one last jackal to shreds before getting on the com. "That's enough. Get us out of this plaza and onto the next." He switched frequencies to Mixer's command channel. "Lieutenant, Gunny Dees here. I suggest moving your gun hogs ahead of the transports. The plaza you hit after the first turn has a shad overlooking the approach and two more in the plaza itself."

"Will do. Thanks for the info."

"How much farther ma'am?"

"About three kilometers to the spaceport."

…

All Ariel Vik knew was that her head hurt like a bitch. It's a sad thing to wake up to pain but she was a marine, she could at least deal with a headache. But what she couldn't deal with was not being able to see. It was incredibly dark where she was, there were on streetlights or lit signs, not even one of Brankenor's moons was glowing overhead. Slowly she raised a week hand and waved it in front of her face. She couldn't even see something that close, until her hand accidentally brushed her face and her fingers ran over her eyelids. They were closed.

With some effort she managed to open them but immediately squeezed them shut as they were assaulted by a barrage of bright white light. After a little while longer she tried again and managed to keep them open long enough for them to come into focus. She was laying flat on her back in a larger room staring at a polycrete ceiling. With some effort she sat up and grunted from the exertion and the pain the movement caused.

The pressure on her head was still there and all she could do was bare it until she remembered she had been wearing a helmet. She reached up and pulled it off and smiled in satisfaction as the pressure disappeared. Most of it anyway, her head still hurt a lot but with out the helmet squeezing her brain it felt at least a little better. But then she saw that the back of the helmet had cracked, not a deep one but she had to have been hit hard in order for it to crack. Gingerly she ran her fingers around to the back of her head and felt crusty dried blood and a massive bump.

Groaning she set about taking in her situation. She had to be under the police building, this sure looked like a parking garage. She remembered the battle in the plaza but didn't think it was a good idea to go running into that, especially in her condition. She felt around her gear and found her canteen, still half full and drank from it greedily. Her borrowed Battle Rifle was gone but her M6 was still on her hip, at least it was something.

She pushed herself to her feet and nearly fell. At first she thought the room was spinning but realized that she was incredibly dizzy. She stood there a while taking deep breaths until the spinning slowed enough for her shaky legs to carry her forward. She pushed up the exit ramp with one hand on the wall for balance and her M6 in the other. Before the ramp turned and finally surfaced she saw a black shape laying on the ground. Moving to it she recognized the remains of a Battle Rifle, but she couldn't use it because the barrel had been bent and the scope and magazine housing were smashed.

To get out she had to pass the transport hog that had been blocking the ramp. Now it was pushed against the wall on it's right side and the passenger section had been pushed inward from it's left side. Looking over the wreckage she realized that the plaza was silent. The battle was over and had to have been for some time judging by how dark it was outside the ramp. She stood at the top of the ramp for what seemed like eternity trying to come to grips with the possibility that the battle, and the plaza, had been lost. Her instinct to move finally won out and she reluctantly came out into the Police Plaza.

She was standing at the edge of a blast crater that must have come from a _Wraith's _mortar. It was still warm but had mostly cooled. Nearby to her right was the burnt remnants of the gauss hog she had been riding. _Isn't that great, I avoided death through a concussion._ The _Wraith_ that she had destroyed was still pressed up against the lower terrace but no covenant bodies were in sight. Not one.

She circled the building slowly still not seeing any alien bodies. When she made it to the path up the the building's entrance she hesitated before going up. Half of the lower walls were shrouded in darkness because of broken lights but she could see scorch marks from plasma burns and broken windows everywhere. Here and there she saw the edges of another blast crater from the _Wraith's_ main gun and human bodies scattered around the area. It was then that she knew for sure that they had lost. Apparently the covenant were like humans, they took their dead with them and left their hated enemies to rot or burn.

It was creepy enough to be alone in the plaza at night but what she had to do was ghoulish. Slowly and still aching all over she set about finding a better weapon than her pistol and any ammo for it she could. This proved to be harder than she expected because almost every weapon she came across was empty and the bodies nearby were also lacking in shells and magazines. It seemed that the platoon and the police had fought until they were pretty much out of ammo for everything but the pistols, which she found hundreds of rounds for. She ended up with an M7 submachinegun, having found three whole magazines for it, a Battle Rifle with a grand total of twelve rounds in it and her pistol which she chose to carry five extra clips with her.

Loaded for something less than bear she stood in one of the dark portions of the garden and tried her best to find east. Her helmet had a built in vav system but hers had been destroyed and she couldn't stand stripping the bodies anymore, she was disgusted enough with herself as it was. She gave up trying to remember the layout of the buildings around the plaza and looked for the tank she had destroyed. And using that as a fixed point she circled the plaza until she found the eastern highway and set out in the shadows.

She was dazed, injured, low on ammo and all alone in the dark but she was heading home. She stuck to the shadows in case a patrol came by and always moved close to concealment or cover. This made the going slower than if she had walked but she was clear headed enough now to know that was a bad idea. If any covenant had still been in the plaza when she walked up the ramp she would have been easy pickings even for the stupidest grunt.

A few block away from the plaza the highway rose to become and overpass but the streets at ground level still followed it allowing for entrance and exit ramps. It was decision time, she could either take the highway onto the overpass where it would be a strait shot to the spaceport or she could take the low roads where she had more cover in case a random patrol came by but she didn't know if the roads continued all the way to the spaceport. She shrugged and passed by the entrance ramp, choosing to play it safe and take the low road.

The night was moving faster than she was as eight blocks in over an hour she was taking around three times as long as she would walking. She was crouching behind a raised garden in front of a bank deciding weather or not not give up on her caution when she heard footsteps in the street and quiet high pitched barks. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she pressed her back against the stone wall around the garden and it nearly tore a hole right through her sternum when she hear an elite growl for the grunts to quiet down.

She hoped like hell that the big bastard couldn't smell fear or she'd be dead very quickly. She held her breath in fear that they would hear that too and pulled the M7 close. The footfalls came closer and closer to her, it sounded like they were on her side of the street and extremely close to the garden. It was then that she thought a grenade would come in handy and had to bite back a groan when she realized that she hadn't even looked for any in the plaza. It was so stupid a mistake she wanted to slam her head into the wall, but she couldn't do that either.

Seconds felt like hours as she listened to the heavy footsteps of the elite and the shuffling of the grunts around it. They came closer and closer to the bank, so close that she could smell the methane that leaked from a grunt's tanks. She was so certain that they would find her that she nearly decided to jump up and start shooting before they did. But either from the fear or because she was still pretty weak her legs just couldn't push her up. Then the steps of the patrol began to fade away into the west. Still she didn't move. When she couldn't hear their steps she let out her breath and sat there breathing, trying to stop shaking.

When she had called down and the adrenaline had been flushed from her system she still couldn't stand up. Her legs were still weak and her eyelids began to flutter. Even knowing that sleeping out there would be tantamount to death she couldn't fight off sleep. It had been a long day and she was exhausted enough not to be able to hold up her head anymore, so she let it drop. It hit the wall right on her bump sending a spike of pain digging right into her brain. This time though she only managed to change the scream into a pretty loud grunt.

Well at lest the pain cleared her head enough to at least get her on her feet. She was more cautious now, watching the street for at least minute before moving to another spot and freezing at every sound she didn't make. She made another three blocks in the next hour, pretty much crawling the whole way. Several times she hand to bite her tongue in order to stop herself from falling asleep.

She had reached the east corner of her fourth block since running into the patrol when she heard something in the distance. Her mind immediately categorized it as not being a threat and she was about to move on when higher intelligence than instinct kicked in. She listened a little longer and recognized the distant sound as honest to god human rifle fire. That meant people and having them around was almost guaranteed to keep her alive. On the other hand gunfire meant they were in trouble and all the covenant in the area know they are there as well. She could be spotted on her way to the fight and it could be over before she even got there.

And on the third hand she knew she couldn't make it all the way to the spaceport by herself. That decided it. She stood, checked the street, turned the corner and ran toward her only chance at survival.

…

Private First Class Roman Kray was tired, sore, still sick and extremely pissed off. It had taken a while to get him out of the building he could only think of as a slaughterhouse. And since then his squad, and Officer Conklin who had insisted on staying with them, had picked up load after load of civilians they could and took them to the spaceport. They even had run into ongoing firefights and saved some of Vellum's police and civilians. But everywhere they went there were dead civilians, none as bad as the first group but he had to fight the nausea every time.

But this assignment had kept him away from the Police Plaza and had probably saved his life, no matter how sick it made him. But no one had gotten any rest since that morning and his mind had been getting foggier each time they went out. But every time he saw a covenant soldier his adrenaline spiked and he went into a killing frenzy. It might have gotten bad but Lazlo and Conklin had managed to stop him from running over _all_ the grunts he could and got him to focus on his job.

Right now he was focusing on the taillights of the transport in front of him and let Lazlo, Conklin and Sergeant Ryan keep a lookout for trouble. He was frankly surprised when the taillights in front of him were suddenly on top of each other instead of side by side and didn't stop. That slow reaction managed to save his life as the overcharged plasma bolt flew past the rear fender instead of stalling them. Kray kept them moving forward long enough to force down the wing of the _Ghost _that had flipped the lead hog far enough that he crushed the elite driving it.

When he finally realized that they were under attack he put the transport in revers and floored the gas peddle. The front tires had already gotten completely over the _ghost_ and when they started to move back over the wing of the alien craft was lifted and jammed into the right wheel well. The transport shuddered and refused to move backward so Kray fed more power through the engine, ignoring the ungodly sounds the vehicle emitted. That was until the axle broke and Kray couldn't get it to move at all.

By then the marines in the front vehicle had crawled out and begun firing on the covenant now coming out of a parking garage across the street. Ryan grabbed his rifle and jumped to the asphalt and Lazlo was firing over Kray's head from the passenger seat. The hot brass hit his head and shoulders and one even found its way inside his shirt and was burning his skin. But he had no time to dig it out, only enough time to bail out with the rest and scramble for cover behind the bulky vehicle.

"Where the fuck did they come from?" Lazlo shouted.

"Doesn't matter, just kill them." Kray responded through gritted teeth. He leaned around the front of the hog and fired a few bursts into the closest alien.

"Anyone get a good count?" Ryan asked a grenade over the top of the hog.

Kray used the distraction of the grenade to swing back out and take a look as well as do some more damage. The street was quickly filling with enemies and he saw some plasma and needles still coming from the upper levels of the parking garage. A smattering of grunts and jackals had scattered from the grenade and there were more of the glowing shields farther down the street illuminating several more grunts an elite. The grenade went off with a loud boom and in the flash he saw another group of at least three more of the infantry commanders. He took all this in while firing burst after burst until his magazine was empty.

"Around ten jackals, say around twenty to thirty grunts and some elites. Those bastards' armor blends in." He reported pressing his back against the warthog's trie.

"Shit! Active camo?"

"No, just a good paint job."

"So its about fifty to six?" Ryan asked "You sure you counted right?"

"Sarge, I am tired and there are lights going on and off all over the place." Krzy said seating another magazine. "I may be wrong. But still say around ten jackals."

There was a scream from the other warthog and Kray looked over. The marine near the front had leaned out to take a shot and he been hit by some of the needler's pink glass like projectiles. Two had buried themselves in his chestplate but one had sunk into the flesh at the base of his neck. The marine, Kray couldn't tell if it was Neves or Lopez, was now on the ground screaming for help. The other marine moved up to yank the shard out of his neck and was reaching down when all three of them exploded one after another. The explosion was more of a pop but it managed to shear all of the tendons on that side of his neck and he head was now attached only by a few tendons and the spine.

"We need better cover if we're going to survive this." Ryan said looking over the battlefield. He spotted a recessed doorway twenty meters from the front hog and the door's handle showed green, unlocked. "Kray, Vostok get to that door and get us in."

"You got it." Kray stopped Lazlo from rising and pulled his only grenade from his harness. He pulled the pin and rolled it under the warthog with enough force for it to get about halfway across the street. Counting in his head he stood up on four, dragging Lazlo with him and ran out of cover on five using the explosion to cover the first portion of their sprint. He tried not to look as he passed the dead marine but couldn't help it and his eyes landed on Neves' still preserved face. He managed not to slow and puke again and made it to the point he didn't have to look any more.

Reaching the door Kray let Lazlo cover the opening to the alcove and pulled open the door. The interior was pitch black and he couldn't see a thing but he quickly took two stops in and one to the right in order to not be silhouetted by the light over the alcove. The turned on the gun's flashlight and panned it over the room. Satisfied it was empty he turned back to the door in time to see first Lopez, then Conklin and Ryan come fling through it. He knelt and and put a burst into a charging grunt before Lazlo closed the door.

"I can't lock it." Lazlo announced sounding rather frustrated in the dark.

"Can we block it?" Lopez asked.

"The furniture is bolted down." Conklin said grunting from pushing on something farther in the room.

"Then we find a backdoor. We're not trapping ourselves in here."

Turning on the lights in their guns the five of the moved farther into the building as quickly as caution permitted. There were several slips, bumps and mumbled curses as the crashed into objects in the dark. The had made it out of the first room, that appeared to be a lobby, and down a narrow hallway when they heard the front door open again. They quickened their pace taking a right turn into another hallway then a left before they stopped at another door. Lazlo opened the door and Kray then Ryan stepped out and covered each side.

They were in a grassy courtyard in the middle of four buildings. The area was lightened by dim yellowish light coming off of lightstrips in the walls. There were benches and raised stone walls around some of the trees but other than that there was no cover. Lazlo came out and quickly crossed the courtyard to one of the other doors and tried to open it. It wouldn't budge so the marine ran to the next then onto the third, both were locked.

"Dead end sarge." Lazlo said as a grunt appeared from the door they had come through. It met a barrage of bullets and fell, blocking the door, but was soon pushed out of the way by one of it's comrades. The five humans took cover where they could and used this bottleneck to the best effect they could, dropping one lightly armored grunt after another. After seven of the stocky aliens had met that fate a jackal stepped through shield first, shrugging off the bullets and opening the way for another jackal to step out followed closely by a grunt. Lazlo reached for his only grenade and tossed it at the expanding group of covenant. By then a third jackal and two grunts had managed to enter the courtyard. The grenade landed and rolled behind the lead jackal and exploded killing all three jackal instantly and allowing the marines to mop up the rest.

What came through the door next was a barrage of blue and green fire and a lit plasma grenade. The fire kept the humans in place and though the grenade didn't stick to anyone it landed close enough to Lopez to make her try to run. As soon as she got up a bolt from a plasma rifle hit her in the back and she hit the ground screaming. She stopped as soon the grenade went off in a flash that crisped her armor and her fatigues on fire. The barrage also cause the humans to pause enough for an orange armored elite to step through the door and into the courtyard.

They tried to concentrate their fire on the though alien but it was a blast from Conklin's shotgun that finally took down its shields and they killed it without mercy. But by then another two jackals and blue elite had made it through the door. As much fire as the four remaining men put out they couldn't push their enemies back through the door, their advantage had been lost. With more and more fire coming at them they were forced to move farther back into the courtyard.

Conklin put one last shell into an unshielded elite before turning and running to another position. Kray saw the officer running and that several of the aliens were taking aim at the man. He raised his MA5 and pulled the trigger. It clicked empty. Conklin was hit in the thigh by one of the pink shards and fell to his knees. A jackal let out an overcharged shot the hit him square in the back and burned almost all the way through him. Screaming Kray pulled out his pistol and fired blindly hoping to kill every aline in the courtyard.

"Kray! Calm Down, we need you sane." Ryan called from across the courtyard. "Ammo check. I've got half a mag."

"Same"

"Down to my pistol" Kray managed.

"Grenades? One on me."

"None."

"Out." Kray squeaked.

He saw the sergeant pull the last grenade from his harness and pull the pin. His legs tensed in preparation for turning and shooting everything he had left. Ryan hauled back and chucked the frag, bouncing it off the wall behind the covenant. The blast killed a grunt, took down one of the three elites' shields and caused two jackal to dive. The three marine burst from cover and put out their last rounds. Kray aimed his pistol at the unshielded elite and managed to kill it after eight shots. Ryan hit the two jackals while they were down While Lazlo picked out a group of grunts. Both of them ran out almost simultaneously.

Now the courtyard had contained two elites, three jackals, four grunts, three screaming marines and a plasma grenade that no one had thrown. It had attached itself to the back of one of the elites and exploded, shattering it's spine and ripping the alien open. Another grenade landed in the group of confused grunts and none of them managed to get away before it blew up. The last elite's shields flared and died and it's head exploded outward in a fountain of purple gore. The marines didn't bother to stop and ask why this happened and killed the remaining jackals quickly.

"Kray, check it out."

Kray moved forward, staying as far from sight from the door as possible. When he didn't take any fire from inside the courtyard he moved closer to the door. He decided to pick up Conklin's shotgun, trying, and succeeding, to avoid looking at his face. There was at least on shell in the gun, which suited Kray so he approached the door. He turned on the gun's light and stepped into the building. His light landed on a figure and he almost pulled the trigger. Then he recognized the farm as human, a woman to be exact. She leaned on the wall and smiled.

"I knew I needed grenades." was all she said before collapsing.

…

Kray drove the hog off the highway and in front of the spaceport terminal. The marine, who seemed to be from first platoon had a major concussion and was sitting in the back with Lazlo trying to keep her awake. She had to have been as glad to see them as they were to see her. He was interested in how she had survived the massacre in the Police Plaza and gotten a kilometer and a half east before running into anyone. But that was for later. Now was time to deliver the butcher's bill.

He turned off the engine and slowly lowered his feet to the ground and came around the front and nodded to Sergeant Ryan. Lazlo helped Vik out of the back and had to catch her when she fell and almost hit her head on the fender.

"Vostok get her a medic. Kray get some sleep, you need it."

"And you?"

"I need to see Detrich, tell him what happened."

Kray wasn't sure what to say to that so he nodded tiredly. Then he noticed there were a lot more warthogs in front of the terminal than when they had dropped off their last load of civilians. "We get more people?"

"Yeah, apparently parts of Charlie company made it through the city. Pretty damn amazing."

"Luck. Just skill with a shit load of luck. And we are going to need more of it soon."

…

**Thank you so much for reading this far. I hope I have you interested in seeing the next chapter when it comes out. Please review and rate.**

And I will let you know now that this story is going to be longer than the Brakenor campaign. 


	6. Any Port In A Storm

**Here it is, chapter six. I should warn you it's a short one**

**...**

**Any Port In A storm**

The second and third platoons of Charlie company and the ODSTs had made it to the spaceport shortly after eleven PM and the patrols had all been accounted for an hour after that. In the time since everyone had started heading back no one around the port had seen hide or hair of the covenant force. So Major Delphi decided to call together his remaining officers. Now three lieutenants and the Captain from Bravo company, three Lieutenants from Alpha and Lieutenant Mixer representing Charlie company were all standing in a semi-circle around the Major in the back of the terminal.

"First off, unfortunately, is the casualty report." The Major started. "Bravo here at the spaceport has lost thirty-one people with another four critically wounded. Most of these are from Third and Fourth platoons, but Second and First are both down six men. Fourth is pretty much part of third now and lost Lieutenant Mambaddah. Alpha?"

"We lost Captain Walsh and Lieutenant Del La Cruz with pretty much all of First platoon." Detrich reported, obviously uncomfortable saying it. He shifted uncomfortably then continued. "The only member of first we know survived is PFC Vik who is now with the medics. Third was hit a bit and lost four and second took three casualties. Fourth though, hit a few ambushes around the city and lost nine people. Forty-one dead and two pulled by the medics all together."

The Major looked Detrich in the eyes and nodded. "I see, and I'm sorry Lieutenant." He hesitated. "Charlie?"

Mixer tried to look the Major in the eyes but couldn't take her gaze off the floor. She had the worst news to give out of all of the gathered officers and she didn't know how the major would take it, or even how she was going to say it. She hesitated for a heartbeat thinking about that before deciding that even if she managed to get off the planet her career as a marine was pretty much over, so what was one more negative opinion? "Charlie Second and Third are down to nineteen people, all functional. That's twenty-seven dead, not counting the four wounded that were taken here when we entered the city. I don't know the status of First and Fourth, Sir."

The gathered officers stood in silence for a moment before the Major cleared his throat. "Charlie First and Fourth responded to the recall order and reported that the platoon of ODSTs that dropped in the west had made it to their station." He paused for a moment and took a deep breath. "They rolled into the terminal about ten minutes ago with nine Helljumpers and six marines. That brings Charlie up to seventy-five people out of action."

Mixer's eyes widened and it felt like someone was crushing her heart. The pressure was so great it was almost impossible to breath and the room went out of focus. _Seventy-five? That's not a company anymore, it's a platoon. How could we have even lost so many? _She managed a ragged breath before she could see the room again. The major was still talking and everyone was so focused on him that they hadn't noticed her reaction.

"-will cover the tarmac while the ODSTs and Bravo Second cover the terminal. I want Alpha Third to switch out with the guys from Bravo that are still on watch in four hours. Everyone else get some sleep, we all need it. Oh, and I want to see you all again in four hours. Dismissed."

The gathering broke up as the officers headed off to find their platoons to relay their orders. Mixer put distance between herself and the others and just started walking. She wanted to find a dark corner somewhere and think. She found herself walking past massive windows that looked over the tarmac, now bathed in dim yellow and white light. The ground crews were pulling another shuttle out of a hangar across the tarmac and she watched from her dark perch as the flight crew tested the engines. She had to have been watching the crews work for a while because hundreds of civilians were lead out and into the shuttle.

She smiled faintly as they boarded the craft and prepared to leave. In a few moments nearly six-hundred people would be headed out of the atmosphere and to safety. She stood there thinking about all the lives that were on that flight, and all the other flights that had already made it off planet. Thousands must have already been evacuated by now. That wasn't even a significant portion of even the city's population, but it was still a lot of people. And if the marines had traded a hundred and fifty lives for those thousands, it was worth it in a way. That took some of that pain away. Her marines hadn't died for nothing, their lives hadn't been wasted, and now she could see what they had died for. It _was _worth it.

"Ma'am?" the voice was soft and came from right behind her. She jumped from the surprise but managed to turn the sudden jolt into a movement that spun her around. Donnelley was standing behind a row of chairs in the darkness. He was almost invisible save for the light from the window that hit his face. His shoulders were down and no where near as tense as they had been all day, and his eyes shined in the soft light. He looked genuinely worried.

"Yes?"

"You disappeared after the meeting so Lai and I ordered everyone to stand down."

"That's good, we're off duty for at least the next four hours." She forced a smile. "A little sleep sounds like heaven right now."

Donnelley raised an eyebrow. "Whats wrong ma'am?"

"I'm just tired Gunny."

He sighed and walked around the row of chairs and right up to Mixer. He bent down so that he could look her in the eyes. His tone was hard and even when he said "I'll be frank, that's bullshit. You're not new to this game and Lai hasn't had to hold your hand through it. But I am asking, begging you to keep your head on your shoulders. You are an amazing officer and it would be devastating to lose you now. The men have been through too much today to take that on top of it all."

She gave him a genuine grin and couldn't help but laugh a little. "You're a little late with your pep talk Donnelley, I'm already back to reality and tracking. All it took was looking out a window." She turned so she could look back out at the shuttle as it prepared to take off. "We've already managed to keep thousands of people safe long enough for them to leave. I think everyone we lost would be proud of that."

She couldn't see him smile, but he did anyway. They stood together and watched as the ground crew cleared the tarmac and the shuttle rose off the ground and into the air. Mixer felt much better knowing that a boatload more of civilians were safe. With her feeling a little more confidant and her head clear she turned back to the Gunnery Sergeant. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"You've been in the Corps a long time, just how have you stayed sane?"

"It hasn't been easy." He said with a sigh. "But it boils down to motivation and stress management. It used to be about killing every alien son of a bitch I could see. But I've seen that end in agony and mental destruction too many times to even think its a good idea. Now a days it's all about the lives I can save. And when I lose a marine I just think about all the people they worked to save in their life, and about all the covenant they killed. I remember that each one of those bastards that are dead means one less human murdered." He stopped for a second and laughed. "Ok, so the killing is still a part of it, but it's not my main motivation anymore."

"That makes a lot of sense. Maybe it's about time I checked in with Lai."

"That's a good idea ma'am." He said as she stepped away from the window. "And please try to sleep."

…

Lance Corporal Jonah Nelms had been on top of the terminal for most of the day shooting any covenant he could see. Now it was the middle of the night and he was _still_ laying on his stomach watching the streets. He was tired, running low on ammo, and he was pissed. Now he and Bailey, their platoon and twenty-two ODSTs were the only ones guarding the plaza outside the terminal. He knew that the other companies, and even the other platoons in his own company, had been beat to hell, but he wanted to sleep.

What made it worse was that he had even more responsibilities than most of the marines still awake. He could see farther and better than anyone else because of his scope and it's night optics. He'd heard that the ODSTs had light amplifying equipment in their helmets but as far as he knew it was up to the three snipers to be their advanced warning system. But ever since the sun had set the covenant had become more and more scarce, and no one had fired a shot in over two hours. But the enemy was still out there, in the city and probably fixing their ship while the humans slept.

He looked to his left at his spotter. The big marine was laying on his stomach and was looking through his spotting scope. But he wasn't moving. Nelms' had known his spotter for nearly three years and knew that he couldn't help but fidget when he stayed still this long. He was still breathing, so he wasn't dead, and that left only one possibility. So Nelms punched the marine in the arm and watched him jump in surprise.

"Hey Bailey, wake up."

"Wha?"

"You dosed off you idiot. You're supposed to stay awake."

"Screw that." The spotter mumbled.

"At least stay awake for me."

"Screw that." He said again.

Nelms punched him in the arm as hard as he could without moving from behind his gun. "It's only another three hours." Bailey grunted and rubbed his shoulder before looking through the scope. Nelms watched his partner, making sure that he didn't go back to sleep. Satisfied that he wasn't going back to sleep just yet Nelms sighted down his rifle once more and watched everything he could. Two hours passed before either of them said anything.

"Hey Jonah?"

"Yes?"

"I'm getting a little worried. It's been what? Four hours since we've seen any covenant? It just makes no sense. We're all in one place, we're exhausted and extremely undermanned. Why aren't they hitting us?"

"I have no godly idea. They could believe there are more of us here at the port, which is good. They could be gearing up for a big attack, which is bad. Or they could be concentrating on fixing their ship, which is really bad."

"I'm sorry I asked." The spotter said sounding honestly regretful.

"Look at the bright side John, We'll be asleep in an hour."

…

Most of the terminals were packed with civilians waiting to leave but one near the maintenance access to the roof and right next to the front door was dark. In it nearly a hundred marines were sleeping, or at least trying to sleep. Most were out cold from exhaustion, but Roman Kray sat with his back on one of the walls and just watched. Men and women were stretched out everywhere, it looked almost like the aftermath of one massive party to him. But instead of empty beer cans laying everywhere there were rifles, helmets instead of lampshades. The comparison made him smile, at least a little.

There were other marines still awake, and most of them were trying to fall asleep. But there were a few that gave up on that and were walking around trying to find something to do, or sitting and thinking like he was. He watched as Lieutenant Mixer crossed over to the windows and stared out at the tarmac for the fourth time. He felt sorry for her, her company had become a platoon and she was the one in charge. He'd love to know how she dealt with that many deaths, he couldn't get the images of Neves', Lopez's and Conklin's deaths out of his head.

He reached down and ran his hand over the shotgun he had taken from the dead police officer and swore to himself, again, that he'd stop letting good people die. Civilians were the worst, they hadn't done anything to provoke an attack and yet they are slaughtered like animals. It was true that the ones that died trying to protect them were easier to rationalize but it still made his blood boil. He took an oath to protect humanity when he joined up and now he was making another one. He wouldn't let anyone or anything threaten his people ever again.

He ran his hand over the shotgun once more then crossed his arms ad looked around the room. Lazlo was dead to the world, Mixer was still at the window, and that red haired Gunny was keeping an eye on her while pretending to sleep. That guy was really looking after everyone left in Charlie company and was trying to hide he was doing the same for the LT. The Major was off in a corner smoking a Sweet Williams cigar and Kray could tell he was really thinking hard. And stretched out near the wall of windows were the serious wounded were attended to by overworked medics.

Sitting on a chair on the end of a row was Ariel Vik. The marine had been thrown from a moving vehicle, crossed half the city on her own and saved his life with a bump on the head that probably would have caused him to forget everything about his life. If that wasn't a sign of a pure badass, then he didn't know what even counted. The medics had confirmed she had a massive concussion, given her some water and checked up on her every fifteen minutes. She was sleepy eyed but still awake, she had to be. So Kray walked over and sat down next to her.

"Vik isn't it?" He asked quietly. She looked over at him and squinted in the darkness to try and see his face but still seemed confused after a few moments.

"That's me, but I'm not sure I know you."

"PFC Roman Kray." He said sticking out his hands without thinking. "I'm one of the guys that you saved in the courtyard. They seriously would have gotten us if you hadn't shown up."

"Wasn't too much of a problem. You were the first living people I'd seen in hours." She smiled at him and shook his hand. Her grip wasn't as firm as he had expected, but then again she wasn't fully focused on anything right now. "And you did most of the work. I just followed the bodies to the rest and picked up a few stickies on the way. I knew I should have looked for grenades before I left the plaza."

"What? You mentioned something like that before."

Her smile vanished. "I was knocked out in the police plaza. I had to pull weapons and ammo off of bodies before I left. I made it a few blocks east before I thought about finding a few grenades. Stupid mistake."

"I wouldn't say that. You were hit on the head and loopy, you shouldn't be blaming yourself for that. Hell what you did was damn impressive."

"I guess you're right." She said shrugging. "Uh, Kray? Why are we still shaking hands?"

He looked down and saw that neither of them had let go and almost reluctantly let go of her hand. She smiled at him again and he couldn't help but laugh lightly. The two of them sat there laughing for a while, until Kray realized that both of them were nearly hysterical. He calmed himself down before he woke up the marines around him. He suddenly felt all those hours of fighting weighing down on him and he was unable to hold up his head anymore.

"Do you mind if I sleep here?"

"Not at all."

But her response went unheard as his eyes closed and his foggy mind closed out anything but his own thoughts. This time instead of seeing the faces of the dead or picturing the ambush for the millionth time his mind was blank. It was in the company of marines, fighters, that the days events finally took it's tole on Kray and he drifted off to sleep.

…

Two kilometers away, in the police plaza, another phantom dropped off another load of troops. The grunts, jackals and elites joined the already large crowd of covenant that had formed in the plaza. Over a hundred infantry were checking their weapons and equipment. Grunts were stumbling around, fidgeting nervously and checking their methane levels while jackal snipers were already moving out. But the elite general overseeing the preparations paid close attention as engineers made some final touch ups on the forces two _wraith _tanks.

Looking around the plaza, he saw that everything was as ready as it was going to be. He clicked his mandibles together in a shrug and gave the order to his aid. Within minutes the tanks were on the move followed by the bulk of his troops. He felt a jolt of pride as he watched them march forward. There were humans to kill and the covenant was marching to war.

…

**Thank you again for reading this far.**

**I felt it was a good idea to step back from the battle for a chapter and clue in readers about the changes in psychology affecting some of the characters.**

**Please post a review.**


	7. Reveille

**Reveille**

The city's streets were empty but not completely dark. The streetlights, stoplights, shop signs and anything else on a timer had turned on a long time ago. But large portions of the roads remained shrouded and almost every window was dark. Since only a few of the spaceport's defenders had the equipment to see in those areas the job was split up among them. Jonah Nelms, still laying on his stomach atop the main terminal, had the dubious pleasure of watching every darkened window and every shadow along the street running up to the plaza in front of the port.

He tried his best to stifle another yawn and failed. He and Bailey had not seen any movement or even heard anything of the covenant since what was left of the battalion had gathered at the port. To Nelms that meant that a huge shit storm was headed their way, and it was going to happen soon. He just wished that he wasn't so tired. He had been watching for covenant and shooting for over half the day and the fact that he was lying still didn't help. As amazing as sleep sounded right then he knew that he needed coffee more than anything.

Taking his eye from his scope he glanced over at his spotter. The big marine hadn't dosed off since the first time, and Nelms was proud of him for it. Bailey needed to move and if he stood still he would start to lose his energy. He had worked on that ever since the two of them had been paired up and could now manage to stay still for about two hours. That fact that he had stayed alert and focused as long as he had was a miracle. But Bailey's attention wasn't on the scope but his left wrist.

"And it's now five AM, our watch is over."

"We don't leave until the guys from Alpha show up." Nelms whispered back.

"I know, I know. I was just saying, for the record, that we should be off duty now."

Nelms went back to his scope and Bailey was still staring at his watch when the door behind them squeaked open. The stairwell behind the door was just as dark as the roof and the marines from Alpha walked out in total darkness. The replacement sniper gave Bailey a nod as he passed and farther down the roof to Nelms' original position. The big spotter pushed himself up with a grunt and a smile on his face. He took two steps toward the door when he noticed Nelms hadn't moved.

"Jonah? It's time to get some rest."

"Shhhh, I thought I saw something move." He whispered.

Bailey looked across the plaza and scanned the windows, nothing moved. He glanced over at the sniper team from Alpha, the spotter was still setting up his scope but the shooter was already prone and watching the darkness. "You're tired, your eyes are playing tricks on you. Besides there are people watching out other than you. Now come on, sleep awaits."

"I guess you're right." Nelms said with a sigh. He pulled himself away from the scope and pinched the bridge of his nose. "It's nothing."

Nelms got to his knees and then to his feet. Bailey held onto his shoulder while he made sure his legs could take the weight and let go to let him pick up the S2. Nelms took one last look at the building he thought he saw a shadow move, and reluctantly followed Bailey to the stairs. The big marine disappeared through the doorway but something made Nelms stop. He _had_ to be sure that there was nothing out there, moving in the dark before he could leave. He couldn't see anything with the naked eye, so he hefted the rifle and put it to his shoulder. One last look couldn't hurt, right?

"Jesus, it's darker in here than it is out there." Bailey balked from the darkness. "I can't see the stairs. Where's the light switch?"

He found the switch quickly enough and the lights in the stairwell flashed on, leaving Nelms standing in what amounted to a spotlight. The light caused him to squeeze his eyes shut and he stood there stunned for a moment. But a moment was all it took. The movement Nelms had seen, and it wasn't his eyes lying to him, was a jackal moving past one of the darkened windows in an office building. The whole of the roof had been dark so Nelms and Bailey just as hidden as it had been. But now it had a target and a chance too good to pass up.

The pinkish beam hit Nelms on the upper left corner of his chestplate, just below his collarbone and right of his shoulder. It had burned its way through a plexiglass window, over the row of parking garages opposite the terminal, and across the one-hundred meter open plaza before it even touched the armor. But that journey wasn't enough to slow down the beam's accelerated particles. They burned through the light armor quickly, cut into Nelms and knocked him onto his back screaming at the top of his lungs. It felt like someone had stabbed him and poured molten metal in the wound

Bailey was out of the door and pulling Nelms to the safety of the stairwell by the time the sniper from Alpha had fired back. Once inside the stairwell Bailey pulled out a bottle of Biofoam from his pack and inserted the nozzle into Nelms' wound. The expanding antiseptic foam filled the wound and would stop the bleeding, at least for a while. But the pressure on the burned tissue sent a fresh wave of pain through his nervous system and caused him the scream again. Once the foam was used up Bailey tossed the can aside and switched off the light before trying to calm his friend down.

"Shit. I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking." Bailey apologized in a near panic.

Nelms slapped Bailey in the face with his right hand. "Don't ever fucking do that again." He ground out, pointing right at Bailey's face. "Now quit blubbering and help me down the stairs."

"Can you walk?"

"I was hit in the shoulder, not the leg dumbass."

Bailey gingerly pulled Nelms to his feet and was about to follow him down the stairs when he remembered something. He held onto his friend's right shoulder to stop him from heading down, then turned around and ran back out the door. A few seconds later he came back in carrying Nelms' rifle. He held it in his right hand and put Nelms' right arm over his shoulder with the other. Together they felt their way down the pitch black stairwell and had made it to the landing between the roof and the next floor down when Nelms' ears perked up. There were three loud booms that had to be an S2 firing, but in the quiet that followed he swore he heard the wine of anti-grav engines and the sound of elites barking orders.

…

Most of the marines had been awake after hearing the first few shots but the rest were quickly roused when the frantic calls came over the radio. It was a tangled mass of confusion as everyone tried to find their squads and officers in a whirling mass of human bodies and the dark. And it was loud as well as every marine tried to find their gear and buddies and called out for assistance. A hundred different voices saying a hundred different things filled the room. It was anarchy.

Because he had been up all night keeping an eye on mixer, Donnelly had been on his feet right after he heard the S2 fire. He had made it over to Mixer before the pandemonium had struck and was trying to find the rest of his men. The dim light from the tarmac that spilled through the windows lit up a few of the faces in the crowd and it wasn't long before he spotted Kostoff and waved frantically to get his attention. The sergeant made his way over to Donnelley and Mixer with a good number of marines in tow, and Donelley saw Lai approaching from the other side with a group of his own.

"Head count." Mixer ordered

"Eleven." Lai said barely audible above the rest of the battalion.

"Nine." Kostoff's voice cut through the din clearly.

Donnelley did the math in his head. "We're missing three Lieutenant."

"That's good. Those three can find us as soon-"

There was a crackle over the radio as someone turned to the all-hands channel and the Major's voice came over Donnelley's ear piece. "Large covenant force inbound with armor. Bravo Second and Alpha Second, hold the plaza and Bravo first will join you. Alpha Third stay on the tarmac. I want the rest of Alpha and Bravo to set up defenses around the northern and southern terminal. I want charlie to get to work on those tanks. Just keep them off the tarmac and the terminal."

"As soon as that happens." Mixer confirmed. "Tanks?"

"There are still some gauss hogs in front of the terminal." Donnelly offered. "Driver and a gunner?"

"No, full crew on each. I also want out rockets on the roof. If there aren't enough hogs I want people holding the front or keeping the civies calm. Now get to work people."

The members of Charlie company split up and joined the mass of marines heading for the doors, a few still picking up equipment. Donnelley gave a nod to Mixer and joined the crowd, keeping close to Nasri and the other rocket jockeys and made sure that the three of them made it to the stairs to the roof. He saw a pair of marines stumble out of the stairwell, one who's left arm hung limply, and had to press against the wall to let them pass before pushing his way into the tail end of the crowd. Squeezing through the front door with two other marines he found himself out of the press and in to open air of the plaza.

Dawn was still an hour off but the plaza was aglow in yellow light from streetlamps and the ports exterior lights. There was a wide lane that ran from the highway, past the front of the terminal and looped back to the highway. On the inside of the loop was a large park with low trees and centered around a large fountain, this park was what was stopping the covenant from firing as they entered the plaza. In front of the terminal was the line of warthogs that Bravo had put there earlier, but now the dozens of them that had survived the recall were ready and waiting closer to the doors. Now marines were climbing behind the guns and, in the case of the gauss hogs, into the driver's seat.

By the time he made it out of the door the gauss hogs were either being filled or already full. But there were still plenty of marines that he recognized from Charlie that were unsure where to go. He pulled two of them out of the crowd and waved to get someone from a small group of them to pay attention. As everyone gathered around him he counted six heads plus his own. Now all he had to do was figure out what the seven of them could do.

Donnelley took a second to look around the plaza. The covenant had to be on the highway headed east and had to have at least managed to get some troops closer than the intersection. That meant they were headed through the park. That looked like there were some good places to defend in there, maybe even set up a few ambushes if they were lucky. Then he remembered the tanks. Would they take the road around or crash right through the park? Then it occurred to him that he didn't know their range, maybe they didn't need to get any closer than the intersection.

Well one idea is better than none.

"Alright, we're moving into the park. Don't worry about the tanks, Mixer and the rest will take care of them. Just concentrate on the bastards in the park." He caught the eye of a few of the marines around him. They were tired and all a little shocky but they looked ready for another fight. Donnelley felt a sense of pride at their resolve, but he felt, once again, that their mental health may suffer because of all of this. He sighed mentally, there was nothing that he could do about that right now, it was time to fight for their lives once more. So he hefted his MA5B, checked the magazine and the safety and jogged through the mass of warthogs and into the park.

He crossed over a paved path and had to run around a bench before his mind kicked into gear again. He had to find cover, or at least a defensible position. He nearly tripped over a rock the size of his head when an idea came to him. There were large boulders, some as large as a warthog, that looked like granite scattered all around the park. That was good cover but he just needed to find a good grouping of them. So he slowed his pace and took a look around, and there it was.

They were near the center of the park now, near the fountain which acted as a hub for all the paths. Off to the left was the group of boulders he was looking for. It was an area about thirty meters to a side with a variety of differently sized rocks, most of which were easily climbable , with enough space between them for a big man to squeeze through. As bonus, he noted, they seemed too small to allow an elite to get around inside the grouping. One of the slabs even was held up over the path around the fountain like so half made arch. It was as close to perfect as they were going to get.

He looked back over his shoulder to make sure the other six were with him. None of them had gotten lost, good. As he neared the rocks he turned sideways and pulled himself through one of the smaller gaps. Then he stepped on one of the rock slabs and lifted himself on top of the rock that hung over the path. He belly crawled farther away from the lower portion and closer to the edge. He had set out two magazines on the rock in front of him when movement caught his eye. He scowled at the sight of a trio of grunts rounding the bend of a path and shouldered his rifle.

His first burst was on target, the first two rounds smacking into the lead grunt's chestplate, pushing it back and exposing it's neck for the third round. It fell back, gurgling and clutching at the blue gushing hole. The other two grunts split up and ran for their lives. Donnelley chose to take down the one running to his right and fired a longer burst that tore up the ground behind the fleeing grunt, one round managing to hit it's leg. The grunt was off balance from the hit and Donnelly took the opportunity to aim properly and put five rounds into the alien's chest. Now it was time for the third to die.

What he didn't know was that the last grunt had suddenly found a source of courage and turned back around. By the time Donnelley had killed the second one the grunt had already locked him in it's sights. Three glowing green balls of plasma wooshed over his head causing him to push himself closer into the rock. The grunt fired off a few more shots, one hitting the rock near his head. The surface melted on impact and the force of the hit sent droplets of molten rock flying in all directions. Some of the heated rock landed on Donnelley's cheek and the noncom pressed a gloved hand into his cheek and rubbed furiously, trying to get the rock off.

Of the marines that had followed him into the rocks, two had stayed close to their Gunny and both of them fire on the last grunt. The first short burst took it in the shoulder and spun it, then the other marine fired off half his magazine into it, ripping it into gooey blue shreds. One of them rushed over to Donnelley, rolled him over and pulled his hand away from his face before pulling out a canteen and pouring water on the burns. The Gunny cringed and nashed his teeth together but he never let out a peep.

Donnelley waved the marine away with a muted thanks and stayed on his back, letting the stinging pain subside. He found himself staring at the sky, just a black void to him since the lamps in the park blocked out the light from the stars. Still, there was a peace to them that pulled him in. Soon he found himself laying there letting his mind wander, forgetting entirely about his stinging cheek. Suddenly his peace was broken by a burst from someone's assault rifle and he shook his head vigorously to snap himself out of it. Now was no time for spacing out, not if he wanted to live.

He checked the readout on his rifle, forty-five shots left in the magazine, he'd keep it in for a while longer. He rolled back over and looked over the small open area for any movement. Neither of the grunts were moving anymore, either dead or close enough that it didn't matter. He saw a little sparkling of blue light through the trees, probably a jackal's shield but it was too far away and behind too much brush for his MA5B to do any good at all. Maybe another group of marines in the park could take care of it and it's friends that were no doubt with it.

Donnelley froze. He hadn't checked to see if any others had gone into the park with his group. He hadn't even told anyone what he was thinking. He sighed explosively and buried his face into his right arm. He had been just as exhausted as everyone else when they reached the port but he hadn't gotten any sleep at all. He wasn't thinking straight at all. _Stupid, just stupid. Hopefully someone saw us go into the park. Otherwise I've screwed us._ The wave of guilt and fear subsided somewhat when he heard another MA5 firing somewhere close but nowhere near the rocks. He hadn't killed himself and the six marines with him, they were still in for a hell of a fight but he hadn't killed them outright.

He picked his head up and looked over the small section of park again just in time to see a jackal back through the trees into his clearing. Then another three three backed through the brush as well, firing their plasma pistols into the darkness beyond. They were close together, trying to keep someone from firing through the gaps in their shielding. Too bad for them that Donnelley had a shot at the unprotected backs and they wwere just begging for a grenade. But before he could grab one from his harness one of the marines with him in the rocks fired, and _missed_.

The aliens spun around incredibly fast and fanned out, trusting the trees to keep them safe from the other group of marines. Donnelley's finger tightened on the trigger and the three round burst just bounced off of his target's shimmering shield. He couldn't even see the jackal in the dark, just the shield, so he guessed at where it's feet might be and fired another burst. No luck. All he got out of it was a few blasts of plasma aimed in his direction so he tucked the rifle into his chest and rolled even farther up the rock.

While he was moving a marine somewhere in the rocks called "Grenade out!"

The Gunny knew the jackals were spaced too far apart to get more then one of them with the frag, but they could get lucky this time. He finished his roll and watched the glowing shields. The aliens must have seen the grenade somehow because the closest two dived to the side and rolled away right before the frag exploded near where they had been. But instead of cussing up a storm, which was his first reaction, Donnelley aimed at a point just above the glowing shield and held down the trigger. The tidal wave of 7.62 ammo tore into the jackal and left it laying in a mangled heap atop it's shield. Donnelley saw the silhouette of the dead alien for a moment before it's shield flared and died.

With one down and three more to go he reached out and felt around for one of his spare magazines and grabbed the first one his fingers brushed. After seating the magazine, with was entirely too hard given his state, he sighted in on another of the jackals and watched as another marine's burst bounced off, hoping the impacts would unbalance it. Again, no luck. So he fired a burst of his own, aiming for the top of the energy shield trying to push it out of line, but most of the rounds didn't hit and went completely over the jackal's head.

But they did hit something. There was a spark of blue light behind the jackal, like a small lightning storm. The light show was accompanied by a guttural roar, a sound that had to belong to an elite. Once the flickering blue lightning had stopped he concentrated on the spot it had last been and couldn't even make out it's shape in the darkness. But now that he was paying attention he noticed that the firing had picked on the other side of the trees, both human and covenant. And with the inclusion of elites in this skirmish, things were going to start to hurt.

…

Sergeant Matt Kostoff had been settling himself behind the gun of a gauss hog when he had seen Donnelley go charging off into the park. He shook his head, the Gunny was brave and generally played things smart, but he had to be even more tired than almost anyone, add in the little concussion and he was bound to make mistakes. He just needed someone to keep an eye on him, almost like an angel on his shoulder. Unfortunately there were no angels around so the Gunny just had to settle for Matt Kostoff.

He had seen a Lieutenant from Alpha pass by the warthog and leaned down to pat the officer on the helmet. He explained that a group of marines had been sent forward to act as skirmishers and that he felt it would be best if another one or two of these groups joined them. Kostoff had been surprised to learn that the officer had already been on his way to do exactly that. Ok so sometimes a marine lucked out. Soon after that all four of the gauss hogs had been ready and moved out.

Now the four of them were speeding around the loop with two of the gun hogs. Mixer had explained it to Kostoff as they scrambled out of the terminal. She believed that if they were fast enough the hogs could break through the infantry, take out the tanks and make their way back around the loop. It was a ballsy but chancy move, and if it didn't work eighteen marines had no chance in hell to get through the loop alive. He just wished that Mixer had the rocket jockeys riding shotgun instead of putting them on top of the terminal. It would have almost doubled their chances for taking out the tanks. But if they were lucky, and he knew that they had been so far, the tanks would be pushing through the park and the hogs would have a pretty shot at their lightly armored engines.

The gun hogs, which were side by side in front of the scattered line of gauss hogs, were just around the curve of the loop from the intersection when they ran into a speed bump. Rather they made one out of a grunt that had been in the dark portion of the street. At the same time as the hapless alien was being turned into mush it's cohorts began firing on the human vehicles. The chainguns lit up in response and the marines riding shotgun aimed at the origin of plasma blasts, but the drivers just sped right past.

The fire became thicker as they came withing sight of the intersection with the highway. At this point the gauss hogs were swerving left and right in order to avoid the fire but the warthogs up front didn't have the room to move. Not unless they wanted to go over the curb and possibly crash into a tree or a wall. But they separated none the less when one of the two bulbous shadows coming off the highway fired a ball of plasma the size of a quad-bike on a nearly flat trajectory. It passed between the leading vehicles at about the height of their turrets, arced down and hit the asphalt directly in front of the first gauss hog.

The flash silhouetted the hog for a second before the ball of fire dissipated and the hog rolled on through. Kostoff didn't envy it's occupants the experience of driving through the blast wave and the heat. But the flash must have blinded the driver because the hog slowed on the other side and began to veer right. The next hog rushed past it and it had slowed to a crawl by the time Kostoff's hog and the fourth passed it. But the driver had regained his sight, or at least composure and started to accelerate again. That's when the second _wraith's_ shot tore the vehicle to shreds.

There was no time to mourn for the dead now. Kostoff pushed the turret into position and centered the right hand tank in the gun's targeting screen. If he fired quickly he could possibly get in a second shot before the tanks were out of sight again. He pressed down the firing switch and felt the gun shudder in his hands as the round slug was accelerated out of the barrel. It was too fast to follow with his eyes but he saw the tank's front armor just right of center spark then the plasma turret fly because of a hit from the hog behind him.

But both of the _wraiths_ were still intact and were turning to fire another pair of shots as the warthogs pass directly in front of them with no more than fifty meters distance. Kostoff looked at the screen on the gun, fifty percent charge. He began to wonder how much time between shots the tanks really needed. He had seen _wraiths_ in the field before, but always from a distance where they were more like artillery. They took a good amount of time but he wondered now just how much of that time was taken up by watching their shots and re-aiming. Hopefully a lot less than he thought.

Seventy percent charge on the gauss cannon and it looked like the left tank was pointed strait at him. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that if it fired right then the shot would land behind the jeep and he would be perfectly fine but fear gripped his heart anyway. Ninety percent and the tank was aiming somewhere ahead of his jeep, just how far ahead he couldn't tell. The screen flashed three times, one-hundred percent charge, so Kostoff once more pressed down on the firing button. He and the tank fired in the same instant and his faster round hit slipped in right under the arcing mortar round and smashed through the main gun and buried itself somewhere in the power supply and the tank stopped floating and slammed into the ground.

The slower orb of destructive blue energy flew to Kostoff's left and in front of his hog as the second tank fired. The left hand round crossed in front of his view and would land somewhere behind his vehicle so he naturally watched shot that could possibly end his life in the next few seconds. What he hadn't seen while he was shooting was that one of the gun hogs had slowed down and put itself between the gauss hogs' path and the tanks. The _wraith's_ shot hit the pavement a mere two meters to the gun hog's right and flipped the vehicle right between the lead gauss hog and Kostoff's.

It rolled over onto it's side then upside down, smashing the gunner into the ground with enough force to shear off the gun and the Sergeant knew the marine was dead. But the vehicle kept on rolling. Onto it's side, upright, over on it's side again and finally coming to a stop with it's tires spinning in the air. But his hog was going to pass right by the wreck.

"Slow down, idiot!" He yelled.

His driver obliged and cut their speed back to about ten kilometers per hour as they passed the mangled hog on the driver's side. Kostoff saw that the driver of the crashed vehicle was slowly pulling herself from the wreck, jumped down to the street, pulled the marine to her feet and was glad to see his driver had enough sense to stop. He practically picked up the marine and threw her into the back of the jeep before pulling himself up. But he'd forgotten about the marine riding shotgun. Looking back over the flipped jeep he saw a bloodied marine pull himself out by the axle. He was about to let go of the hog when the marine was hit by fire from the park and fell with a smoking hole in his back.

"Go go go go go!"

The warthog jumped into motion and the gas peddle was floored. They were on their way to catching up with the other hogs so Kostoff looked back. The tank he had targeted was grounded and it's main gun was sparking wildly. But the fourth gauss hog was now a burning mass of twisted metal, well more like four burning masses of twisted metal. There was no possible way a human survived that. The second _wraith, _however was still up and turning to track them. All he could do was hold on tightly to the gauss cannon and wait to see if they would live or die.

As fortune would have it they rounded the curve and put the park's trees between themselves and the tank. No longer able to tell where they were or would be the tank quit tracking them and pushed forward into the park, snapping the trunks of some of the smaller trees as it went. On the other end of the park the three hogs pushed their way through the still light infantry fire and pulled up in front of the terminal. Kostoff did the math in his head as they came to a stop. Eight marines and three hogs in return for destroying a tank, hitting another and taking out a small smattering of infantry. It didn't seem worth it. But maybe he was wrong, he sure hoped he was.

…

**Ok, so I left it at a bit of a cliffhanger. There is more of this battle to come, I promise.**

**Again, I thank you for reading this far. Please leave a review. **


	8. The Break of Dawn

**The Break of Dawn**

It was an hour before dawn and the city of Vellum was dark, only the streets and the odd storefront illuminated. It's streets were empty ans quiet, as were it's buildings and parks save one. At the spaceport and the park in front of it an equal number of human marines and covenant infantry were butting heads in what seemed to be a final push by the aliens. And the open areas of the park were now awash in a random light-show as human rifles and plasma weapons flashed in the darkness.

It was fair to say that the sides were evenly matched in this battle. The Marines were exhausted from a full day of fighting and running through the city but were in a defensible position at the spaceport with some heavy fire support from their few remaining warthogs. The covenant forces, on the other hand, were fresh and well rested by comparison, a good number of them had energy shields and they had entered the fight with two tanks (one now grounded by a daring warthog charge) but had to fight their way through a human firestorm. So this fight was going to boil down to how each individual fared instead of an organized action.

To tell the truth, some were better off than others.

Gunnery Sergeant Eric Donnelley didn't know, or even care for that matter , if he was one of the marines in the clear. Odds are he wasn't, but all he cared about at the moment was being just that much better than any covie that came near him. For the most part he had nothing to worry about, but more and more aliens were moving through the park and the odds were staking against him and the six marines fighting with him in a large group of rocks. Actually it was five now. A jackal he managed to keep it's shield between itself and the humans long enough to squeeze between the rocks and kill a Lance Corporal while he was reloading.

Donnelley had quickly killed the jackal but there was just no time to check on the marine, much less care for him if he was only wounded. The gunny stayed as low to the rock he was laying on as he could and seated another magazine, he had to be running low. Quickly he patted himself down and his fears were true, only one magazine left in his harness plus the one in the rifle. He shrugged, when he ran out he'd slide down the rock and pick up some from the dead LCP. If worse came to worse he could still pick up the jackal's plasma pistol.

He peeked over the edge of the rock and quickly ducked back down as a shot from a plasma rifle passed over his head. He rolled to the farthest edge of the rock, laying almost directly above the path circling the fountain that acted as the park's central hub and took a look from there. The five jackals were easy to pick out in the darkness because of their glowing shields and a group of four or five grunts was quickly moving from under a light post that was near the path. He couldn't see any but he knew that at least one elite was in the group.

He almost shouted in excitement but held it back. The grunts were staying pretty close together and were getting even closer to some of the jackals. On top of that the aliens had lost track of him for a moment. He reached into a pouch on his side and pulled out his last M9 HEDP grenade and kissed it before pulling the pin. He pushed himself to his knees with one hand, made his best guess on how to throw it and flung the explosive into the darkness. It must have landed a couple of meters from the cluster of grunts because only the leading two were thrown off their feet and the nearest jackal's shield died as the alien shrieked in pain.

Donnelley quickly shot each of the two grunts still in the pool of light with a pair of three round bursts each. But he hadn't moved since throwing the grenade and was still kneeling atop the rock, firing like he did was an invitation for a barrage of plasma. He dropped to the rock and pushed himself away from the edge in order to avoid getting hit but he still felt the heat from the shots that melted the rock nearby roll over him. Deciding it was best to move again he pushed himself farther down the rock but paused when a glowing blue orb stuck to the rock where he had just been.

Donnelley's eyes widened and he pushed himself down the length of the rock as quickly as he could, practically screaming "Shit shit shit shit!" the whole way. He was at the base of the rock where it was wedged between the two others that held it up and was dangling his legs over the edge when the grenade exploded. The fireball didn't come anywhere near the Gunny but the shock wave traveled over the surface of the rock and slammed into his chest. He was lucky that he had been far enough away that the concussion hadn't ruptured any of his organs but the blast was still strong enough to throw him from his perch and slam him into another one of the warthog sized slabs of granite.

The force of the impact knocked the wind out of him and when he tried to breath in again nothing entered his lungs. Panic took hold of his mind and he continued to suck at the air to no avail. After what seemed like an eternity of sitting with his back to the rock and clutching his throat, he managed to take a ragged breath and fill his lungs. He took a few more deep breaths, each feeling better than the last, before he stood back up. A wave of dizziness hit him and he had to lean on one of the rocks so he didn't collapse. It took him a few more moments to get his balance back then he pushed off the rock and managed to stay on his feet this time.

Close by was a marine with his back braced against a boulder while he reloaded. Donnelley saw him look mournfully at the weapon then shrug slightly. He stood up and turned the corner of the rock and fired a panicked burst before he fell back with a smoking hole where his face used to be. Stepping over the body and into the rocks was another jackal, it must have been just on the other side of the rock when the marine had moved. Now it was inside the rocks and putting its shield between itself and Donnelley.

On the other hand it was now all but locked in a confined space with an extremely pissed off marine. Donnelly's rifle couldn't break through the thing's shield, so instead of firing he charged. He must have taken the jackal by surprise because it didn't fire. He stuck to the jackal's left side as he brought his gun down onto the shield as hard as he could, managing to knock the alien back. Letting go of the rifle he grabbed at the shield, hoping to pull it away, just to have his fingers slip off as though he was trying to grab slick ice.

Now the jackal was turning, trying to get Donnelley in front of it's pistol. Running out of time he pulled his right arm around and smacked the shield away and punched the now vulnerable jackal in the eye. The alien stumbled backward from the strike and Donnelley pressed his advantage and stepped closer so it couldn't bring it's defense back up while delivering a right hook. Now he planned to grab it's head and knee it where he thought it's gut should be, but he forgot all jackals have quills on the back of their heads and they punctured both his hands causing him to jump back with a yelp.

The jackal quickly took a shot that crisped the armor on his thigh. With a roar of mixed pain and hatred he rushed at it again and slammed it into the rock. The bird like alien squawked in surprise and clacked it's beak trying to bight off a chunk of Donnelley's face. He managed to get his left arm in front of it's throat and pushed it back against the rock while his right hand fumbled over his harness. At last his fingers brushed what he needed and pulled it out. There was a brief second where he wondered if the jackal's eyes were good enough to see the steel blade in the darkness before he stuck it in the alien's eye.

The jackal screamed and struggled for a minute or so longer before it finally died. Donnelley pulled the knife out of it's skull and wiped the purple gore off on his sleeve before sheathing it again. He had to fight back a gag as he pulled the marine's body away from the opening in the rocks. Feeling around on the ground he found his MA5B, and after making sure it was still functional put his back to the rock and peeked out the gap. He quickly ducked back behind the rock and took another look. There were still four more jackals in the open, but three of them were busy dealing with fire from the other three marines. The fourth was much closer but as Donnelley raised his rifle a large shadow ran across the light of the shield. The elite.

He pulled his head back just in time as blue bolts of plasma filled the gap and melted some of the rock. After the barrage had subsided he pointed his rifle around the rock and held the trigger down, hoping for the best. Forty-eight rounds later the rifle clicked empty and Donnelley pulled it back quickly before it could get slagged. He pulled out the last magazine from his harness and scowled at it. It was tough enough to kill an elite with two other guys firing at it, his sixty rounds weren't going to cut it. He had to figure something out.

His options became even more limited when the sound of snapping wood cut through the firefight. He needed to know what was going on so he risked poking his head out one more time. The group of marines on the other side of the trees were still firing but sporadically and panicked shouts filled the gaps. A bright blue-white orb was visible through the gaps in the trees and when that orb hit something it exploded in a flash of blue light that killed Donnelley's night vision. That had to be a _wraith_, they were royally screwed now. Pulling back behind cover he heard the tank plow it's way through some more of the smaller trees and pushed off from the rock.

"Fall back!" He bellowed. "Out of the rocks and to the port, fast!"

He suited words with action and juked his way through the rock pile and into open ground where he did a quick about face and covered the path while the four remaining marines ran past him. The last one was nearly out of the rocks when the tank fired and screamed as the blast consumed him. Donnelley wanted to scream, wanted to cry. The death toll was enormous and it was only going to climb. But now was not a time to lose focus, or even pause to mourn otherwise he would certainly be on today's butcher's bill. He snapped back into focus just in time to see a jackal come around the far side of the rocks and fired a burst to make it duck as he ran for the trees.

He passed right by the marine that had stopped to cover him. He ran straight through the trees, the branches snagging and searing his BDUs. He ran with wild abandon, never slowing down, never looking back. Even with his heart pounding like a jackhammer in his chest and his lungs screaming for more oxygen he ran. He ran through more trees and out onto open asphalt and still didn't even slow until he passed the line of warthogs and had to slam into the wall in order to stop.

He put his back against the wall and slid down. He sat there panting heavily with his head between his knees. Once his heart slowed down a bit and his breathing became easier he looked up and found a canteen shoved right in front of his face. He looked at the marine holding it and smiled as he recognized Mixer. Accepting the drink he noticed she looked even grimmer than when they had crossed the city, she must have lost more troops. She was probably kicking herself for letting at least one of the tanks get close enough to fire. He searched his exhausted, adrenaline fueled and oxygen starved brain for something to say. He couldn't come up with anything, honestly he felt like shit too.

…

Mixer stood watching Donnelley drink. He looked on the verge of passing out and she couldn't blame him. He had been run ragged the day before, even after being blown up, and had probably gotten just as much sleep as she had, which was none, just to be thrust into the fight again. The man deserved a break, maybe more so than most of the other marines, but he'd have to settle for sitting down for a few minutes and a canteen of lukewarm water. While the SNCO was busy drinking he couldn't talk but the way he had come barreling out of the park spoke volumes.

"Sergeant." She said turning to Kostoff who was standing behind her, looking over a warthog. "You said the _wraith _went into the park?"

"No ma'am. I said it might have."

"It's in there" Donnelley said still panting. "Right on our heels."

"It's their last one." Lai put in looking down from the gun mount of the nearest hog. "And after what we did to the other one I doubt it will even come close to this much firepower."

"So why the park?" Mixer asked herself out loud.

Not realizing she wasn't asking for input Kostoff chimed in. "First off probably to take care of our skirmishers."

"Didn't need the help. We had our hands full with the infantry. Damn shields."

"So maybe not that. But it is a mortar tank, the smart thing to do would be to call-" The overhang of the building shook over their heads and they all ducked as a massive boom bounced around the front of the terminal. A section of the overhand thirty meters away gave way and fell on the marine unlucky enough to be beneath it. "Call in artillery" Kostoff finished in a hushed voice.

"I hate it when you're right."

They saw another globe of burning energy rise over the treetops and reach the apex of it's arc before the overhang blocked their view. Mixer backed away from the warthog and pressed her back against the wall, if it was going to hit above her head she didn't stand a chance. The plasma mortar landed just a few inches from the warthog closest to it's initial shot and the blast tore the vehicle apart and slammed the burning bits into the terminal wall.

Mixer opened her mouth to say something but was cut off as Lai fired the chaingun at something on the other side of the jeep. By the time mixer looked over the hood a grunt and a jackal were lying dead on the asphalt and plasma was flying out of the treeline. She rested her assault rifle on the hood and aimed at the origin of several green bolts. She put fifteen rounds into the area the alien had been but couldn't see if she had actually hit anything and was forced to duck behind the warthog when a line of pink needles flew her way.

More and more marines joined in and soon everyone in front of the terminal was using whatever they could to shred the brush in the park. But the fire coming from the covenant's end was just as heavy and several marines fell with plasma burns or pulling at glassy shards before they exploded. She was crouching behind the front tire with kostoff leaning out from behind a column to her right, Donnelley had scrambled behind the rear tire and Lai was still laying down a hail of fire from the warthog's gun. The gunny from 3C looked at her sheepishly.

"Spare a mag?"

After sliding him a spare magazine she turned around the front of the jeep and put a burst into a grunt in red armor that had panicked and run across the open entrance to the park. She had to shield her eyes as another mortar round landed ten meters to her left. She felt the explosion in her chest and put her back to the tire again. Looking across the human line she saw another burning warthog and a marine rolling on the ground in an attempt to put out the flames

"That fire is too damn accurate." Kostoff growled.

Donnelley squatted back down after firing a short burst past Lai's leg. "They have to have a spotter calling in the strikes. We can't reach the tank but we may get the spotter."

"They have a hundred spotters!" Mixer retorted. "But we need to do something or the _warith_ will tear us apart while the infantry keeps us from moving."

"Any Ideas ma'am?" Lai asked between bursts.

"One. But first we need some rockets."

Donnelley nodded. "I'll get the rocket jockey's down here"

Her ear piece emitted a burst of static then Dephi's voice. "The ground crews are preparing a shuttle on every space available on the tarmac. We just need to hold out until a little after dawn. But we still have a tank problem. Mixer?"

"We're working on it Major."

"Better hurry Lieutenant". He said as another mortar rose through the air.

…

About two minutes later PFC Nasri and the two other remaining heavy weapons specialists from Charlie company were crouching in front of the Lieutenant. By then another two warthogs and a group of marines had been hit by the mortar and most of the hogs were now being driven around small sections of the road to prevent being targeted. And even with that, admittedly small, amount of time to think no other plans came to mind. But three specialists was a perfect number.

"Who wants to blow up a tank?" All three of them raised their hands, so she chose the middle one at random and pointed at him. "You're my man for the job. What's going to happen is Gunnery Sergeant Lai will stay on this hog's gun and you're riding shotgun with Sergeant Kostoff. When he pulls out I want you two" she pointed at the other two rocket jockeys" to each fire two rockets on either side of the hog. I want twenty meters of that treeline flattened."

"So it's another hog charge?" Kostoff asked from behind his pillar.

"Yes."

Kostoff worked his jaw but nodded once and went back to shooting. She knew why he was hesitant, he last charge at the tanks had cost the battalion the lives of eight marines and three hogs. But she was glad he didn't say anything. But she couldn't tell if he actually thought the plan would work or if he was grudgingly following the chain of command. She looked to Lai to see what he thought but he was still busy manning the gun. Instead Donnelley caught her eye and gave her a smooth nod that said she had his support.

"Alright, mount up" She said before spinning and firing around the front of the jeep. Both the Gunnery Sergeants opened up on a section of the treeline as well to cover the rocket jockey as he climbed into the warthog and slid into the passenger seat. Once he was in Kostoff pulled himself up and into the driver's seat and kicked the vehicle into motion. He turned and accelerated strait for the park.

The two heavy weapons specialists that had been behind the hog both fired, nearly in synch, first one rocket parallel to the hog's path then their second farther along the treeline. The rockets wooshed past the moving vehicle on either side and blew a single massive hole in the covenant's line. Save for one small area in front of the hog that hid two grunts cowering behind a bush. The pair of aliens were turned into paste as the multi-ton vehicle entered the park and was soon out of the battalion's sight.

The warthog's big tires ate into the soft dirt and threw the ground up sod behind them. They were past the covenant's main force but were still taking a small amount of fire from behind and individual aliens that were farther back. But it was up to Lai to take care of anything that poked it's head out to shoot at them. Not too far into the park the marine riding shotgun spoke up.

"I hate to ask this now but how do we know where the tank is?"

Kostoff glanced over at him but quickly looked back at the darkened park. "Since the tank isn't taking any fire it wont move, makes it easier to re-aim." As if to confirm this statement another mortar round rose above the trees, practically in front of them. "Get ready."

A few seconds later the warthog burst through another line of trees and Kostoff had to immediately swerve in order to avoid hitting the tank. The covenant had learned their lesson from earlier that morning and put a gunner on the plasma turret. Now as Kostoff tried to drive around the _wraith _it was turning with him as it's turret poured blue fire out like it was water. Lai responded in kind and unleashed a stream of .50 caliber rounds that mainly sparked off the front armor, but a few hit the gunner and Lai was rewarded with the sight of an elite's shields flaring.

"Shoot it already!" The Gunny screamed.

The rocket jockey aimed the launcher across the top of the warthog and fired the first rocket so close to Kostoff's head that it would have burned off all his hair if he'd any to begin with. He waited for the barrels to spin and fired off the second rocket just before the first hit. The 102mm rocket hit just low and left of the gunner, killing it almost instantly and blowing off a chunk of armor, exposing the driver's cabin. The second was aimed in the same area as the first and went right through the whole and exploded on the outside of the cabin. The explosion broke through the thin wall and consumed the driver and blew out the back.

With a hole blown through the tank Kostoff was satisfied that their job was done and circled around the wreck and followed the path the created going in. They started taking heavy fire from infantry again and the Sergeant turned left to avoid a tree and drove right into a blast from an overcharged plasma pistol. The plasma did little damage to the hog's armor but when the magnetic envelope that carried it burst it fried all the electronics and stalled the jeep.

Lai swore, he couldn't turn or even fire the gun without power. He let go and hefted his MA5B, firing at anything that shot or moved. Kostoff hit the ignition over and over and nothing happened. Then the engine rattled and roared to life. Lai grunted as Kostoff hit the gas pedal and they flew through the park, smashing through the tree line and back onto the road. After hastily parking he and the specialist quickly bailed out, but Lai took his time.

The Gunnery Sergeant was leaning heavily on the gun and holding his chest, blood seeping between his fingers. Mixer was in the bead and next to the Gunny before Kostoff even saw the blood. He and Donnelley moved around and were standing next to the bed.

"Lai, what happened? How bad is it?" Mixer asked, panic thick in her voice.

"The hog stalled." He whispered, head pressed against the gun. "Carbine got me, obviously missed my heart. Just need some biofoam."

"Just hold on."

"Be gentle." He said as she wrapped his left arm around her shoulder and lifted him off the gun. She pulled him to the edge of the bed and lowered him enough for Donnelley and Kostoff to lower him the rest of the way. Once he had his feet on the ground he tried to put weight onto his legs and screamed as an intense wave of pain radiated from his left calf. Looking down he saw that his whole lower leg was so much charred and torn meat, and as soon as he looked at it it began to hurt even worse.

"Carbine round huh?"

"Might have been from the tank's turret." Kostoff said holding up Lai's weight again and began dragging him into the terminal. "Could have been the infantry. Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't feel it." He grunted.

"Shit! He's really bleeding." Mixer exclaimed stepping over the trail of blood left by the leg wound. "Get him into the terminal and to a corpsman."

The Sergeant complied and tried to keep as much of Lai's weight on his shoulder as he could but the gunny was heavier and much larger than him making the task all the more difficult. Mixer followed them through the door to the terminal and past the panicking crowds of civilians. As they neared the area nearest the tarmac that the marine Corpsmen had set up as their small aid station one of them ran forward and helped Kostoff set him down on a row of seats.

"What am I dealing with?" The corpsman asked hurridly.

"Carbine round to the chest and plasma burns on the leg." Mixer replied. Kostoff noted that by now she was choking up.

The corpsman shoved a can of biofoam into Kostoff's hand and said "Put this in his chest" then set about working on the leg. Then he paused and swatted Kostoff's hands away from Lai's chest. "Wait, lift him up and check his back."

The sergeant, now more than a little flustered, complied and lifted the Gunny by the neck of his BDUs so that he was sitting up. There was nothing that Kostoff could see on his back and was about to put him down when it dawned on him what he was looking for. Scanning again carefully he still couldn't see anything so he gently laid him back down. "No exit wound." He ground out.

"Shit. Its still burning inside of him. How long was he standing after he was hit?" He asked not looking up from his work on Lai's leg.

"I don't know. About a minute."

The corpsman didn't say anything for a while. Instead he finished taping up the leg and pulled a syringe from his bag and inserted the needle into Lai's arm. Once finished with the injection he finally took a look at the chest wound. He pursed his lips and grabbed some gauze to wipe away the blood. After a little while he stood up and turned to the Lieutenant, all the hurry having left him. Mixer didn't need to ask.

"The round most certainly perforated his liver but it didn't go all the way through and has been burning it's way downwards and backwards. By now it has to have cut open several blood vessels, and there is nothing I can do about internal bleeding except for biofoam, but the pressure would push the round into even more big blood vessels." The corpsman pursed his lips again and bowed his head "I've given him a sedative so he won't die in pain." He said before walking off to see to another wounded marine.

Kostoff didn't have anything to say so he left in silence. Mixer stood watching her Gunny for a long time. He had been the only platoon sergeant that she had ever worked with. He had kept an eye on her and kept her on track when she was a newbie shavetail Lieutenant. Now the pillar of strength she had come to rely on was bleeding out and there wasn't a thing she could do about it. She wanted to scream, to cry but she didn't have the energy. So she watched as one moment Lai was breathing slowly and the next he wasn't.

She had seen people, marines, die before, far too many in the past twenty-four hours. But of all the days events and all the death, this was by far the most painful for her. She took a shaky breath and walked back to the front of the terminal and tried her hardest to keep a steady pace. She could still hear the firefight raging outside and readied her rifle before pushing through the door. And as she strode out ready to re-enter hell she was surprised to find she could clearly see the trees in the park and the sky overhead was streaked with orange and pinkish light. Dawn had broke.

…

**Thanks so much for reading this far. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do writing it.**

**And I am sorry I killed Lai. He was a great gunny and someone who could have turned into a great character.**

**Please rate and respond.**


	9. The Straw That Broke The Camel's Back

**The Straw That Broke The Camel's Back**

Brakenor's only sun was now fully visible over the distant mountains and was spilling light into the city. On the tarmac, where four more shuttles and two medium cargo freighters were being readied, the ground crews' work was moving faster now because they could see what they were doing. And now in the dawn light the marines still out front could clearly see the covenant in the plaza's park. But the reverse was true and now the humans could be seen by the jackal snipers that had set up in the office buildings across the plaza. Now on top of the firefight outside of the terminal the snipers started their own little battle.

At first the jackals took aim at the warthog gunners and three of the marines went down before a number of 14.5mm rounds smashed through the same number of windows. Now the sniper teams that had been on top of the terminal were the jackals' main targets, and they had to move in order to keep the aliens guessing. Every so often a pinkish beam of accelerated particles would streak across the plaza and a marine's S2 would respond in turn. One of the covenant's shots hit the hood of a warthog just in front of Ariel Vik, forcing her to duck.

There was a shot from over her head. "Another one down." the sniper said over the radio.

When the covenant had arrived Major Delphi had what was left of Alpha fourth and Bravo third and fourth split up and covered the northern and southern ends of the terminal. Not having a platoon, or even squad of her own Vik decided to follow the marine that had been sleeping next to her, Kray was his name. Now they and two more marines that she recognized from the firefight in the courtyard were watching the park on the south end of the terminal. Or at least trying to. Between the group of grunts hiding in a group of trees and the snipers none of the marines could stick their heads out for too long.

"That was too close." She muttered.

"How close?" Kray asked from his position behind the warthog's rear tire.

"Hit the hood in front of my face. Close enough I still felt the heat."

Kray nodded once before peeking around the back of the jeep. Since he didn't take any fire he shouldered his rifle, leaned out and fired two bursts at something Vik couldn't see. The Sergeant, Ryan she though his name was, had to have heard her because once Kray was back behind cover he ask asked "Did the shot hit the motor?"

Vik sighed, she didn't want to stick her head out just to check on the engine. But this could be classified as an order. So she gently pressed the back of her head against the warthog, trying her best to avoid putting pressure on the massive bump. She slowly pushed herself up, sliding her back up the body of the hog until she could see over the top of the hood. There it was, a charred, smoking hole about a foot and a half from her eye. She dropped back down to a squat and shook her head.

"The shot went through the hood, and it had to have hit something."

The Sergeant sighed, but it looked like he had already scratched the hog off the operational list even before she had taken a look. It was no big loss, it would hurt if they needed to leave the port but the way things were, that was very unlikely to happen. Odds were that the marines would hold the spaceport until they were either flying away or dead, even if it wasn't their choice. But right then the human's overall strategy didn't matter much, killing covenant did.

Vik slid up the side of the warthog again and peeked over the hood, looking for a target. There wasn't an alien in sight, they were hiding in the thicker groups of trees. She was just about to squat again when the breeze picked up and the the leaves moved just enough to reveal a small section of red metal. Sliding back down she checked the MA5B she had to trade for her treasured battle rifle. Slowly she leaned out from behind the hog and aimed at the still barely visible patch of red. Her first burst had to have hit the grunt somewhere on it's tank because it's head and chest was lifted into view. The second burst, or at least one round must have hit it somewhere in the upper chest and her finger was tightening on the trigger again when the bumper in front of her was hit by plasma.

She quickly got her head behind the protection of the warthog and let it fall back against the jeep's body. A bolt of pain shot out from the bump that had just hit the metal. Vik pulled her head back up and gingerly rubbed the back of her head, muttering curses. She heard Kray trying to hold back his laughter to her right and the sound came out like a quiet choking. She glared at him and taking the hint he settled down and gave her a sheepish look that said 'sorry'.

She was trying to figure out how to push back the covenant troops so the aliens' flanks would be open when a frantic cry came over the radio. "Shit! Banshees and Phantoms coming in hot from the east. Almost over the tarmac."

"Well," Kray said in the silence that followed "at least we wont be stuck out here all day."

…

The group of covenant aircraft had launched from destroyer as the sun rose over the mountains and had kept the star behind them as they flew in a strait line towards the spaceport. As the flight of five Phantoms and four Banshees neared the outer fence the fliers accelerated and strafed the tarmac, sending the ground crews scrambling for cover. Once past the tarmac they split up into pairs, one heading north the other south. Each pair banked and followed the road in to strafe the marines' firing line. But their long and slow flight path allowed the marines with the few remaining SPNKrs to lock on and fire. A total of ten rockets were fired at the four Banshees, all of them locked on to their target.

The lead Banshee in the north was hit right on the nose as it finished its turn and was turned into so much falling confetti. Its wingman saw the rocket hit and tightened his turn before rolling over on his left wing as a rocket screamed through the air he had just occupied. But as he continued the roll a second one clipped his wing, sending him spinning to the ground below. To the south the pair had finished their bank and the lead one rolled out of the path of two of the incoming rockets, but a third hit it as it leveled off. The last banshee though dived under the path of the rockets fired at it and fired a fuel rod at a cluster of marines hiding behing a gauss hog. The pilot opened his mandibles in amusement as the five humans disappeared in the green fireball, never seeing the rocket that had turned to follow him catching up.

Close behind the Banshees were the dropships, which hosed even more plasma down onto the tarmac. Four of them continued cruising on over the terminal while the fifth slowed and descended, hovering over an open section of tarmac between the central landing zone and a row of hangars. The four that continued on were over the terminal, firing at the snipers still not off the roof or fully behind cover and over the road before the rocket jockeys could reload. The Phantoms split up and tracked their plasma cannons across the line of vehicles. The humans were running for the doors, but they weren't routed, just doing their best to avoid being hit.

Once all the marines were either inside, dead, or hiding, three of the Phantoms turned and headed back over the terminal. The last Phantom lowered itself and opened its bay doors, keeping the terminal's doors covered with the plasma cannon. The covenant on board stepped onto the ramp and jumped down to the road below. The dropship had been carrying the same load of troops as the one that had stayed on the tarmac, and now two hunters and a dozen elites were on either side of the humans' position. One of the hunters raised it's arm and fired, leaving a hole where the terminal's main door used to be.

…

Private First Class Roman Kray ducked behind the baggage checking desk as the second hunter blew in the door that he had run through moments before. A second fuel rod flew through the new opening and slammed into the security station and he cringed when he heard screams from the marines that been holding up there. His scream wasn't the only sound, there was gunfire from farther up the terminal and the panicked cries of thousands of civilians as they ran for the tarmac. But that one scream stuck out and stabbed him in the heart.

He peeked over the top of the desk and saw an elite in bright white armor rush through the door, already firing it's plasma rifle. It ran right into a hail of gunfire from several of the marines but it's shield must have been stronger than the orange ones' because it held. The massive alien planted it's feet and swept the room with it's rifle, and at least one marine went down screaming. Kray looked at his rifle wondering if he could make any difference, then looked back up in time to see another three elites run through the smoking hole in the wall. They were begging for a grenade, too bad he didn't have any.

It seemed like fighting something that strong was like pissing into the wind. But then his exhausted, sleep deprived, adrenaline fueled brain remembered the shotgun on his back. It would be enough to take down their shields, if he got close enough... or they got close enough to him. He sunk back down behind the desk and unslung the shotgun, listening with horror as the plasma fire continued and the screams increased. Then the ground under him shook slightly and did so again and again rhythmically then stopped with the sound of a fuel rod cannon firing. The hunter had entered the building.

Panic gripped his heart. Had he trapped himself behind the desk? He was still wondering if he should make a run for it when a mass of blue vaulted over the desk and landed heavily right next to him. Now Kray was no expert on alien body language, but it seemed that the elite was just as surprised as he was. Before the elite had even moved or roared Kray slid the shotgun up his chest and pulled the trigger. The shot exited the barrel and traveled all of a meter before overpowering the elite's shields and leaving a hole the size of Kray's fist in it's chest. Ok, now it was time to move.

He stood pumping the slide on the gun and turned to the lobby. There was an orange armored elite about four meters away, concentrated on something off to Kray's left. He aimed and fired, feeling the gun's full recoil for the first time. The barrel rose erratically and he couldn't see what damage had been done until he brought the weapon back down. The elite had been knocked back slightly and was now looking at him, screaming it's throaty battle cry. But it's armor was sparking like the shield generators were trying to recover from the hit. He fired once more into the thing's gaping mouth, and it's head practically exploded, spraying purple blood and gore onto the wall, floor and the hunter's armor.

What Kray had not noticed when he stood was that the elite had been blocking the hunter from firing, and now that his meat shield was gone he could see the cannon charging. He dropped onto his stomach screaming profanity that would make any priest faint and heard the cannon discharge. He covered his eyes and squeezed his eyes shut. The fuel rod went low and impacted a few feet in front of the desk, but the concussion still felt like it would rattle all the teeth from his head and the blast of hot air singed the hair on his exposed forearms.

Every marine was taught that a hunter had to charge it's cannon between shots. So before Kray could even consciously register he was still alive he was up and over the desk, running for a coffee shop counter on the other side of the security station. Plasma shots were flying all around him, but nothing hit. A blue armored elite stepped in front of him and swung it's powerful arm in a backhand that would break Kray's jaw. He ducked the swing and gave the elite a blast from his shotgun for it's trouble. He was almost there, almost to safety, no matter how temporary.

He was passing through the security area when someone grabbed his armor and pulled him down hard enough that the wind was knocked out of him when he hit the ground. Another fuel rod flew through the air right over him and continued on into the waiting area, where it hit something or someone and exploded. He looked over to the person that had pulled him down and found himself looking at the faces of Sergeant Ryan, Lazlo, and Vik who had pulled him down.

"Thanks" He managed to say when he got his breath back.

"No problem" She said not really paying attention to him. The wall they were behind shook violently with the sound of another explosion and Vik pushed him away. "Go go go go!"

The four of them sprinted from cover while the hunter's cannon was still charging. Kray remembered his days in basic training where he had to run every day. He had always been out front of almost everyone, even some of the instructors at a full out sprint, But Vik was was putting in all her speed and was diving over the counter of the coffee shop while Kray was only a little better than half way there. Nearing the counter he tossed the shotgun over then rolled over the top. He was trying his best to get his heart rate down when Ryan jumped over the counter and landed on him and Lazlo came over farther down.

Kray didn't want to move, and he defiantly didn't want to look back over the counter top. The elites had to be coming through the security station by now, followed by the hunter. Not only was that a threat to them but that left only a few meters and a handful of marines between them and the mass of civilians that were running for their lives. He could hear their screams increase and the sound of their struggles become even more frantic, and his heart nearly stopped.

A voice came through the radio, above the rest of the combat chatter and frantic calls. "Hunters and elites are in the terminal." Major Delphi sounded out of breath and there was the sound of an MA5 firing very close to him. "The covvies from the park are following them in. There are also hunters and elites on the tarmac. Dees, get your men out there and stop them from damaging the ships. I'm calling an all hands retreat. Get to the ships! Good luck people."

…

Major Anton Delphi ducked behind a row of chairs as a flurry of needles came his way. He watched as some of the pink projectiles tore so far through the leather and upholstery they jutted out on his side. "Good luck people." he added to the end of his order. He wished every one of his remaining soldiers all the luck he could, they would need it to survive this madness. All he could do now was hold the covenant back long enough for at least some of them to escape, after all he was going nowhere with the fresh plasma wound on his side.

He pushed the woman beside him in the direction of the ramp to the tarmac and stood back up. Well more like holding himself far enough up by the armrest for him to shoot over the top of the chair. Not only were there five elites running around through the shops and waiting area in front of him, there were some grunts and jackals being added to the mix. And from the sound of it a hunter was close too. He picked out a white armored elite ultra and held down the trigger until it rolled behind another row of seats.

He glanced over his shoulder and was glad to see the group that had been with him were almost all through the door to the ramp. It wasn't safe by any means but it was better than being lined up along the glass windows and being gunned down. Thinking on it, he could imagine the covenant doing exactly that. He regained focus in time to see the ultra aiming at him and ducked behind the chair again. This time though he could see hols being burned through the soft material.

He saw a marine across the aisle pull the pin from a grenade and toss it at the ultra, by far the toughest target in front of them. The grenade bounced off the elite's chest plate and landed at it's feet before exploding. The alien had jumped back from the grenade but it had still been close enough for the blast to take down it's shields. "Pour fire on the white one!" He shouted and put the rest of his clip in it's direction. He smiled a little when it fell, torn to shreds by dozens of rounds.

The marine that had tossed the grenade was quickly herding a group of civies to the ramp when a plasma grenade arced over the row of seats and stuck to his back. The marine reached back in a vain attempt to rip the grenade off while the people closes to him panicked and started pushing and shoving to get way. He was looking right at the major, the plea clear in his eyes, when the grenade went off. All that was left of him and the three nearest people was a bloody mess spread across the floor and the group nearby.

Some of the people became so frightened that they stood and made a break for the door, only to be gunned down by blue fire. Others were stuck in place, transfixed by the gore in front of them. The Major managed to get the attention of one of the more lucid ones and frantically waved at to the ramp door. The man managed to get some of his cohorts to move and they stayed low and made it to the door. There were still three that hadn't moved from their spots and were just staring with blank expressions and one was in the fetal position crying. He was still trying to get their attention when a fuel rod hit the row of chairs and they were just gone.

He held back a scream of pure rage and looked around once again. He spotted Captain Ikari nearby and began a painful crawl toward him. The hunter had fired twice more by the time Delphi reached his last remaining Captain. When Ikari saw the Major he scowled and offered him a hand to get closer. Delphi accepted the help and the two of them sat with their backs to a small and low metal barrier.

"Its good to see you Ikari."

"I'd say the same but... look at you sir!"

"Do me a favor will you? Make sure some of them get off this rock."

"Not until I blow the shit out of that hunter, sir." The captain said patting the rocket launcher next to him.

"Seems fair enough. How many shots do you have left?"

"One."

"Damn." The Major pushed himself up and found the hunter easily enough but it's shield was in the way of a kill shot. "If you have a grenade I have an idea."

"That being?" Ikari asked pulling out a grenade and handing it to the Major.

The major only winked before pulling the pin and leaning out, straining his side enough for the pain to nearly black him out. When he was sure the hunter saw him he threw the grenade as hard as he could. It bounced off the hunter's head and rolled down it's back. Knowing the blast could really harm it's lightly armored back the hunter spun and put it's metal shield between itself and the grenade. Captain Ikari stood with the launcher shouldered and aimed at the exposed patch of orange skin before firing. The rocket flew strait and true, and hit the armor's weakest spot and exploded, tearing the behemoth in half. Ikari had his fist in the air and Delphi was smiling at the carnage when the plasma grenade landed between them.

…

By the time that Delphi's hunter fell hundreds if not a thousand or more people were on the tarmac, clawing for room on one of the few waiting ships. But a few others, not many in the mass, were pushing their way past the ships to where the marines from Alpha third were holding back the covenant. Odds were that the platoon was all but destroyed with those walking tanks and air support in the mix. But Geoffrey Dees was hoping that these marines could surprise them once again.

They did. Alpha had been patrolling the tarmac with six gun hogs and two gauss hogs. One of the heavy cannons had managed to take down a hunter before being turned into a mass of burning metal. The other had, with the help of the platoons last few SPNKr rockets taken out the turrets of all but one of the dropships before suffering the same fate. Only three of the hogs were even upright anymore and only one of them moving, but all of their turrets were firing wildly ay the hunter in the middle of them.

The last Phantom's turret stitched a line of blue plasma up the length of one of the unmoving hogs, melting the tires, slagging the windshield and turning the gun into a lump of molten metal that was slowly covering the remains of the gunner. At the same time the hunter fired a fuel rod that impacted the side of the other immobile jeep and it flipped several times before landing on it's side. Now with less fire the hunter turned to the engine cowling of the nearest shuttle and was charging it's gun and there wasn't a damn thing Dees could do to stop it.

But the marine driving the last warthog did the craziest thing the ODST had ever seen, and drove right at the hunter. The alien's back was turned to to jeep and it had to be going sixty or seventy kilometers an hour when it hit. The hunter was thrown forward and it's cannon discharged into the ground. Once it landed the warthog ran right over it, unable to slow enough to stop. Once the jeep was over and past the prone alien the gunner put a nice long burst into it's flattened back. Dees was struck dumb by what he had seen and just quit moving forward.

That lack of action earned him a bear hug from a massive marine, who pulled him him back and around a cart used by the ground crews. Back there he noticed a marine with an S2 sniper rifle resting on the cart that was concentration solely on his scope. The marine leaned to the right, moving the gun left, following the motion of the dropship and fired a single round the smashed into the joint connecting the turret to the Phantom. He barred his teeth when the turret swung in his direction and pulled the trigger two more times. The first bounce off the front of the gun but the second broke through the joint and the gun fell to the tarmac.

The marine that had been holding Dees let go and looked strait at his visor. The Gunny was about to tear him a new one when the Private spoke. "I'm sorry for the rough handling Gunny, but you were blocking the shot."

Dees swallowed his anger and nodded to the marine. "Just give a little warning next time. I almost though you were an elite."

His eyes widened behind his visor and he jumped forward, taking the big man by surprise and taking him to the ground but took a knee to his gut on the way down.. The three rounds from the needle rifle wizzed over them and the sniper fired his last round at the elite responsible. Realizing that Dees wasn't attacking him the marine quite pounding on him and looked sheepish as he apologized. Dees grunted and held his stomach as he stood and helped the marine up.

"I'm sorry Gunny." he said softly.

Dee stayed crouching behind the cart and nodded to the marine again. "Quit groveling. By the way," he said turning to the sniper "that was an amazing shot."

"That's Jonah for you. He-" The big marine began but was cut off by the nearly deafening roar of all the ship's engines coming on line.

"What the hell?" Dees shouted. "We can still get more people onto the ships!"

"Look east." Came a clear voice over the the radio. It took him a few seconds to realize that the sniper had been the one to say it. He turned his head to the east and saw the same battle between a few marines and elites that he had been watching before. Then he saw the problem.

"Oh shit."

…

"Move move move!" Mixer shouted, waving another group of civies up the ramp to the tramp freighter. "Get your asses moving NOW!"

She could hear the engines, they were about all anyone could hear, and they sounded like they were about to pick up off the ground. For good reason too, the destroyer was back in the air. She knew why they had to leave and leave now but it killed her that there were so many people still running across the tarmac. The civies and few marines were still streaming onto the ship and the others around it but she wondered when the pilot would lose his nerve and just take off. She was begging God, Allah, Buddha, any deity she could think of for just a little more time.

Donnelley was right next to her, helping a woman up the ramp while screaming at Kostoff who was dragging every last marine he could find to the base of the ramp. Unfortunately the covenant infantry was pushing in from both sides and a good number of the marines couldn't move or were doing their best to buy the ships just a little more time. Heroic as it was she couldn't lose them either. The gunny caught a sniper rifle that was tossed to him and nearly fell off the ramp when two marines made their way inside followed by and ODST firing bursts from his Battle Rifle over the heads of the civilians.

She felt the ship shudder and the noise from the engines grew to a deafening roar. They were taking off, with or without the people on the ground. They had maybe thirty seconds before they were in the air. Donnelley and at least four other people were screaming an all hands recall over the radio and the civies really started to push and shove to get on board. The ship shuddered again and began to lift off the ground. Donnelley grabbed onto the ramp's hydraulics to lean out and grab the ODST at the base of the ramp and pull him up.

The three of them began pulling everyone they could up and onto the ramp. Mixer found herself pulling up the short NCO that had been nearly a hundred meters away only thirty seconds ago, he must have really moved to get aboard. By now the ramp was at about head height now and people were screaming for her help. Hand after hand she grabbed and pulled so they were on the ramp. Then after pulling up a rather heavy, balding man she turned back and all the hands were gone. They were airborne.

Then the ramp lurched and began to close and she couldn't help but watch as the screaming crowd on the tarmac changed from an ocean of faced to a mass of figured she could hardly make out then nothing as the ramp clamped shut. Still she couldn't move. Donnelley laid a gentle hand on her shoulder and steered her away from the ramp and found an open space for her to sit. He squatted in front of her and looked her dead in they eye.

"I'll go take a head count. I'll be back in a few minutes." Then he disappeared into the tightly packed mass of people in the cargo bay.

She didn't know how long she sat there nor was she aware what anyone around her was doing. All she could see were the faces of the people they had left at the space port. She could see all the faces of her dead marines, she could see Lia's face trying to avoid looking her in the eye. It made her sick to her stomach and she wondered if there was even an empty space on the floor to vomit when she noticed two pair of boot right in front of her. Looking up she recognized Donnelley and Dees with blurry eyes.

"Head count's done ma'am. We have around a platoon's worth of marines on all of the ships and another thirteen ODSTs." He hesitated, thinking about what he said next. "You are the ranking officer."

"I talked to the pilot." Dees put in. "We'll be flying low to the ground to the west so we can avoid the damn destroyer. We'll be out of atmosphere in ten minutes about out of the gravity well in another twenty."

With that the ODST nodded and left. Donnelly however looked at her with a softeness she had never seen from him. He took a small breath and sat down beside her. She knew he wanted to say something, anything to make the situation better. But he sat there in silence, and to be honest that made everything feel so much worse. She didn't have the energy to scream, all she wanted to do was curl into a ball and cry. After a while, around the time the freight started pulling up out of the atmosphere Donnelly opened his mouth.

"Cry" Was all he said. And she did.

…

**There it is. The platoon is all that is left. But they are still raw and not yet a true unit. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please R&R.**


	10. From The Ashes

**From The Ashes**

"Upon of the events on Brakenor there are some questions that have been left unanswered."

Mixer straightened her back and shifted uncomfortably. It had been almost a month since she and the rest had left the planet. After their blind jump they headed for the nearest human colony and Mixer sent a report through the net. The response came quickly, once all her wounded personnel were healed(or dead in two unfortunate cases) they were to immediately report to Reach for a debriefing. That's why she was now sitting at a table in her dress uniform, facing the five officers of the review board.

The last hour or so had been a nightmare. After introducing themselves the board went strait to work taking her report orally and comparing that to her original report. Then came the worst part, reviewing the combat footage from some of the marines' helmet cams. It was one thing to have experienced it first hand but some how it was worse to think back on it. It had been hard to keep a strait face during all of it, and she nearly burst out into tears again when they played the footage of them leaving.

So she began sizing up the members of the board instead. The man sitting in the middle was a General who had introduced himself as Laramore. It seemed like she had seen him somewhere before, and the name was familiar. Then she had it, he was in charge of all the ground based defenses in what was left of the Cygnus sector, Delphi's direct superior. To his left was a Vice Admiral, probably his naval counterpart. On the general's right was a member of the UEG there to voice the civilian government's questions. The two on either side of the table were junior officers, one clearly Navy and the other she wasn't sure about. But she could tell by the way that each of them were watching her and occasionally jotting down notes that they were evaluating her psyche.

She looked at the civilian, the one who had spoken last. "And what questions would that be?" she asked innocently.

"For starters, how did the covenant destroyer sneak up on you? Especially with two frigates over the planet?" General Laramore asked.

"Well as I have stated, we were ordered to pack up and board the _Waterloo _and _San Juan_. Since no other force would be coming in to replace us we shut down the sensors and turned off all the lights. We simply shut the base down and were going to rely on the civilian space traffic control tower for the next few hours, but it seems they shut down for maintenance that day. As for why we didn't get word from the frigates?" She shrugged. "Odds are the _Waterloo_ was destroyed before they could get off a message. I'm not sure why the _San Juan_ stayed silent though."

"I think I may know." The Vice Admiral said, raising his hand. "Captain Ramose most likely ordered radio silence so he could sneak up on the destroyer. He has a history of being rather bold and extremely tricky in combat."

"Are you sure of this?" The General asked, looking at the naval officer who nodded in return. "So it was a series of very unfortunate events that lead up to the ground engagement?"

"That seems to be the case, sir." Mixer said without thinking.

The General shot her a a glance that, while not angry, told her to keep quiet. So she bowed her head and didn't say another word. Then he sighed and put his elbows on the tabletop, leaning and pressing his face into his hands. "That does seem to be the case alright." He dropped his hands to the tabletop and picked up a piece of paper, frowning while reading it. "In the end nearly thirty thousand people left Brakenor through Vellum's port, and another twelve thousand through a smaller port to the city's east before the destroyer took back the skies. Over forty thousand souls At least we have that much to show for it." He paused "If the board has no further questions we can dismiss the Lieutenant."

Mixer just wanted it to end, the whole hearing had just been too painful. But it had just been the General, the Vice Admiral, and the UEG representative asking the questions. If the other two officers were psychs it was their turn to dig through her mind, and she knew they would dig deeper than the other three. And it wasn't just because they would have her remember the pain and the loss, she was genuinely afraid that they would certify her unfit for duty. Sure it would be nice to have a job that meant she didn't get shot at but, she didn't think she could fit into civilian society, not with her experiences. Fighting is what she knew. Even with the memories she knew that she could keep going.

At least she hoped she could.

For a few seconds the room was quiet and the General looked to either side of him. Hope filled Mixer's heart. Maybe the junior officers weren't psychs after all. Maybe, just maybe she could get out of there with no more digging. But her heart sank as the naval Lieutenant raised her hand and opened her mouth.

"I do have several questions for the Lieutenant."

_Damnit._

…

After another thirty grueling minutes the board dismissed Mixer. She walked out of the room with her back straight and her steps quick and even, but not rushed. Once through the door to the waiting room all that changed. Hearing the door shut behind her she stopped dead in her tracks, shoulders slumped and head bowed. Not having to keep calm in front of the board anymore her emotions flowed freely and her fists clenched tightly in rage as her eyes filled with tears. So swept up in her feelings as she was, she failed to notice that she wasn't alone.

"Was it really that bad LT?"

The voice was gentle but not exactly soft, more a combination of concern and curiosity than anything. But the speaker had taken her by surprise and caused her to jump a little. She managed to blink the tears from her eyes before looking up. The waiting room had a dozen comfortable looking armchairs placed along the walls, and two of the ones to her left were occupied. Donnelley and Dees were watching her intently, well Donnelley was at least, the ODST just had the neutral expression he'd had most of the time she'd seen him without his helmet.

"Pretty much." She admitted with a sigh. "Not only is it a review of the battle, it's a full psych eval."

Donelley noticeably winced and Dees slowly nodded in understanding. She knew that all of them had been through debriefings before, but it was much different. An entire planet fell within a day and there were fewer witnesses than there were in other battles. And as hard as it could be to look back at a battle, this one was worse. Hundreds of UNSC personnel and tens thousands of civilians dead in less than twenty-four hours. Anyone who survived that was likely to crack. It just made sense that their mental health, as well as their actions in the battle would both be called into question.

"Makes sense." Dees' tone was even as he sat forward and propped his elbows on his knees. "Only real question is what will happen to the people they certify for duty."

"We just keep on doing what we know how to do." Donnelley shrugged. "I _really_ don't think the UNSC can spare the manpower."

"So you'd go on fighting? I love the spirit, but I hate to bring up that I still have a unit and you two don't."

"We'll just have to wait and see." Mixer said, resigned. "Right now I'm more worried about not being declared unfit for duty or in the middle of a court marshal."

"A court marshal?" Donnelley practically jumped to his feet. "You can't be serious. You didn't do anything wrong, you handled it as well as anyone."

"Better." Dees corrected.

"Well I have two words for you boys. Warthog charge."

"And just how would that mean disciplinary action?"

"For starters," she said, her temper flaring and her face reddening "the first time eight marines died and we lost three hogs. And even after that I did it again, and that time..." She had ended up shouting, but as she trailed off all the energy left her. She turned her head away from Donnelly's gaze and stayed quiet.

The red haired Sergeant looked at the ground and breathed out one word. "Lai."

Mixer nodded, still not looking at either of the NCOs. No one knew what to say. The only noise was the ticking of an antique face clock over the door to the board room. After fifty ticks Donnelley couldn't bear leaving things as they were and took a step to his right so he could see Mixer's eyes. She turned her head even more, but he kept moving right until he was looking into her green eyes. He placed a hand on her shoulder and was about to say something when the door opened and an aid stuck his head out.

"Gunnery Sergeant Dees?"

The ODST nodded to the aid and stood. He tugged at the edges of his uniform and nodded in Mixer's direction. "Good luck, Lieutenant." and then he disappeared through the door.

"This is bullshit." Donnelley said after a while. He had kept his eyes fixed on Mixer's.

"Yeah, it is."

The Gunny took a deep breath. "Look, this isn't the place to have a meltdown, and sure as hell isn't the place to talk about it. Just cool your heels for a few hours and we'll talk about this after I go through the meat-grinder too." He smiled faintly at his attempt at humor, but got no real response from her. "Just find something to do that calms you down." He added a little more seriously.

"A game of chess does sound good right now."

"Chess?"

The lieutenant shrugged. "I like the game, picked it up at OCS. I guess when I'm focusing on the game I'm not thinking about everything else."

"That sounds good. Care for a game?"

"Sure. Playing against computers just isn't the same."

"Alright, We'll do that. I'll track you down in about four or five hours." He said letting go of her shoulder and taking a step back. Mixer gave him a little, halfhearted smile and walked past him to the other door. She paused there and straitened her uniform. She glanced over her shoulder at the Gunny and smiled again, this time much warmer and real, then she stepped through the door. As she walked down the hallway the smile didn't disappear. Chess really did sound like a good idea, and even if the game couldn't keep her mind off of the debriefing she still had people looking out for her.

…

Eric Donnelley let out a heavy sigh as he exited the board room. Mixer had been right, the meeting had been brutal and now he was left feeling just as strung out as he had when they were leaving Brakenor. He had even started to question his own sanity after the first hour. But the review was over and he still had a promise to keep. By now Sergeant Kostoff and someone Donnelley assumed was one of the ODSTs were waiting for their turn. The Gunny passed on the same warning that the Lieutenant had and left through the second door.

After winding his way through the maze of corridors and taking a lift to the ground floor he stepped out into Reach's open air. Epsilon Eridani was still high but was already starting to move lower in the sky, which brought up the question of just how much time the board had taken with him. Mixer had been in the debriefing for around two hours, but Dees had taken an extra hour. Instinctively he raised his arm to check the time and his eyes widened and he pulled out his cell to check, they matched. He had been with the board for just over three hours and in his mind he was very late so he practically jogged to the barracks that the survivors of Brakenor had been given for the time being.

While the building Donnelley entered was called a barracks it was different from all the others the marine had lived in. Most times the buildings were built to fit a platoon of marines, with a large open room filled with bunks with a small room near the front where the senior NCO slept (officers sharing a separate building) and a large washroom at the back. This one however was built for an entire company, and while the layout for each platoon's section was the same, the officer's quarters, their washroom, a CO's room and a mess hall were all attached. There was plenty of room for the surviving marines _and_ ODSTs to live, and it provided something rather rare in the military, privacy. But as much as Donnelley liked having all the comforts the military provided in one convenient place he knew that command had put them there as a form of isolation, quarantine.

Donnelley came through the door at the head of the bunking area and made his way past the four doors to the platoon's sections, and moved past the few marines moving around as well. He was especially careful not to touch the shoulder of the man he recognized as Nelms, remembering the beam rifle wound. Past the platoon area was "Officer country", now with the senior NCOs living in the main officer's quarters and Mixer sleeping in the company CO's room. Odds were she was in there, so he stuck his head in. There she was, sitting behind the room's desk with her head laying on top of an empty chessboard.

"Ma'am?" He asked after knocking on the door frame. Mixer jumped a little and shook herself awake before looking up at him. "I'm sorry I'm late. I'd love to sit down for a game... if the offer is still open."

She smiled up at him and waved to the chair across from her. All the urgency left him as he entered the room and sat down, watching her intently as she set up the board. What he hadn't told her was that he had only played chess a few times as a kid and didn't remember anything about the game other than the objective. Mixer caught onto that fast and was only halfway through setting up when she asked. "You don't know how to play do you?"

"Nope." He looked up sheepishly. "Will you teach me oh learned one?" He asked with a big shit eating grin on his face.

Mixer let out an honest to god belly laugh at that and it took her a little while to calm down enough to respond. "Definitely. The only other person who knows how to play is Kostoff. He's not exactly the best company."

"I have to agree. He's not a bad guy and a great sergeant, but he doesn't open up much." Donnelley said, still smiling. But his smile faded and he picked up a piece and ran his thumb over it. "He's seen more of this war than either of us, maybe too much of it. I just hope that what we lived through doesn't do that to us. But the odds are it will." He finished with a sigh.

"That is what the odds are like. Do you know what piece that is?" She asked, happy to find something else to talk about.

"The ...Bishop?"

"No, it's the Knight."

"It always moves in a L shape, right?"

"Very good..." They spent a while slowly reteaching Donnelley the rules and move while talking about unimportant stuff. Likes, dislikes, opinions, small bits of their histories and even a few of the brighter moments from their last fight. Finally Mixer made a move, starting the game. He was already missing three pawns, a knight and a Bishop when mixer asked another meaningless question. "I'm curious Donnelley, what's with the watch? It's one of the old face ones too, why not get a digital or just use your com or neural lace like everyone else?"

Donnelly looked up from the board without moving his head. He pushed a pawn forward before answering. "Back when all of us were still on Earth, my entire family was made up of clock makers. When they left for the colonies there was no need for clock makers, everything was digital. So My great grandad made one last watch and wore it all his life. He passed it down to my grandfather who gave it to dad who eventually gave it to me. It's our heirloom, and the only thing I have left of my father... and Eridanus II."

Mixer paused. "Was he still there when..." She trailed off when he nodded sullenly. "I'm sorry."

"It's ok, we've all lost someone by now."

She took another pawn with her knight. "Eridanus II? Do you remember anything about the insurrection?"

"I'm not that old. I was eight when the covenant glassed it. Sure I was born before the war but I was too little to understand why my neighbors cursed the UNSC even when it was the only thing standing between us and the aliens. I remember thinking that if watching your home and family burn is what it takes to see that, you had to be a damn idiot. What about you? Where are you from?" He asked taking her knight with his Queen.

"New Damascus. Big industrial center now. Mom was with the UNSC during the insurrection but resigned after she met Dad. When word spread about Harvest she signed up again, served under Admiral Cole until she died in combat. I could never tell if Dad was more proud or sad when I enlisted, but I think there was a little of both."

Donnelley winced when she took his queen. "Did you intend on going to OCS when you joined?"

"No. The only thing on my mind was mom. I kept wondering what she would have thought about me following her. A few years later I figured I could at least try, it might even get dad to worry a little less. Well, the obvious part is I passed, and I picked up this game while I was there." She watched as he took her other knight. "Nice, but checkmate."

"Damn." Donnelley said smiling a little again. "Do you still think that you're going to face a court marshal?"

"No. My nerves were frayed after the debrief and I wasn't thinking strait. But I'm still worried about what the psychs are going to say."

"I think everyone will. But we won't know their verdict for a while," he stood up, stretching "So we might as well not worry about it and get some honest to god rest."

"Great idea." She said as he neared the door. "And Eric, thank you."

He stopped in the doorway and looked back over his shoulder. "Not a problem ma'am."

…

Several days later the review board had called in all the survivors of Brakenor and asked their questions so much that General Laramore was reciting them in his sleep. He watched the last marine walk out of the room, looking just as pale as everyone else had, before looking to his left and right at the other member of the board. "Well ladies and gentlemen, that is the last one, and I want this to be over just as much as you do, so thoughts?"

The Vice Admiral cleared his throat. "I'll be frank, I don't know if the destroyer was the first to find the planet or not but the timing sucked. All the eyes in the sky were shut off and everyone was caught flat footed. On the other hand their timing was rather fortuitous. With the _Waterloo_ and S_an Juan_ there and the _San Juan_ managing to take it down actually gave our ground forces a chance to get at least some civilians off planet. But it was a hell of a price to pay."

"Roughly forty-two thousand out of a total population of seven-hundred thousand." The UEG representative breathed. "As much as I hate to say it, we're lucky that they found someplace with that small a population. Again, that is all thanks to the frigates and your marines General.'

"They really did hold on as long as they could. But I'm still trying to figure out if they got extremely lucky or are really that good."

"It's probably a little of both." the Vice Admiral said.

The General nodded. "You're right. Now aside from an admittedly lengthy list of possible citations I need to figure out what to do with the marines. After something like that I'm not sure any of them can keep it together. Same goes for the ODSTs, we need to know if they're cracked, or will crack, before we reassign them." Everyone looked at the naval Lieutenant expectantly.

"Well there are some that need a full psychiatric workout before they should go back on duty, but it is a surprisingly small number of them. Of the forty-four survivors, marines and ODSTs alike, they are only five clear cases were either the workout or discharge are recommended with a few others that will probably be assigned to non-combat units for the foreseeable future. The rest though are a little odd."

The man at the other side of the table spoke up. "The ODSTs are naturally a little harder to shake up, so the ones that aren't on the transfer list are pretty much solid psychologically. The marines though are strange. You have a few like that Sergeant Kostoff with a history of battle who we know can manage to hold it together, but only a few. The rest all seem to be tracking properly, but all of them, and I do mean all of them have PSTD, but they seem to be able to work past it. That much I am sure of. But I noticed that most of them never really met one another until after the battle, and now they are already referring to each other like close comrades, even family in a strange way."

"And this means?" The general asked, one eyebrow raised.

"I don't really know. My best recommendation is to keep them together and just see what happens."

The General looked back at the naval Lieutenant. "I agree."

…

Eva Mixer stepped out of the shower with a towel wrapped around her. It was amazing to have her own bathroom for once. Fear aside, this was turning out to be a pretty good vacation. She had slept more than she had in years and was just having too much fun beating Donnelley in chess. Making sure she was adequately dried off she opened the door to her room and flopped face down onto the bed and let out a happy sigh.

After some time she got up and was reaching for her locker when she noticed the light on her terminal blinking. The computer was built into the desk but she had signed into this specific console but had used it sparingly in the last two weeks, only sending a message to her father saying that she was alright and she wondered if he had replied. So she sat up and reached over to turn on the screen, flipped it over to her mailbox and read.

Lieutenant Mixer, E 11779-69471-EM

General Laramore, UNSC UNICOM, Cygnus sector

/Lieutenant, you have been certified fit for duty and I am happy to announce that you will have command of a new platoon. This platoon is comprised of proven combat veterans and will be serving in a specialized role, somewhat akin to shock infantry. The following personnel will be serving under you.

Gunnery Sergeant Donnelley, E 29585-09091-ED

Staff Sergeant Kostoff, M 00496-52523-MK

Sergeant Ryan, D 79079-81134-DR

Corporal Bradley, S 33297-44261-SB

Corporal Jehl, T 13579-88141-TJ

Lance Corporal Banigan, I 55916-32318-IB

Lance Corporal Harris, J 00191-44299-JH

Lance Corporal Nelms, J 51280-93396-JN

Lance Corporal Rowley, A 92570-51244-AR

Private First Class Bailey, J 115222-55955-JB

Private First Class Barnett, A 07070-66923-AB

Private First Class Childers, W 86854-90711-WC

Private First Class Harriman, M 56318-37821-MH

Private First Class Hudak, J 42321-71762-JH

Private First Class Kray, R 01234-77989-RK

Private First Class Lutz, F 09211-73473-FL

Private First Class Nasri, O 62210-57179-ON

Private First Class Paddok, V 57268-34301-VP

Private First Class Punske, J 21379-05606-JP

Private First Class Saucedo, J 13008-50824-JS

Private First Class Vik, A 14159-24251-AV

Private First Class Vostok, L 22033-31700-LV

/Your current living arrangements will not be changed. Use this next month to organize your platoon and train them. Good Luck Lieutenant.

She knew the vacation was too good to last.

…

**There it is, The platoon has officially been formed. After the epilogue I will start up their tale in another story, The Lost Platoon: Shock Infanty.**

**Thanks for reading.**


	11. Epilogue: Training Day

**Epilogue: Training Day**

Twenty-three of the twenty-seven marine survivors from Brakenor had been organized into a singal platoon. The other four had all received their orders and left, two saying their good bye, one who had only informed Mixer of his orders and unfortunately one had to be pulled from the Barracks kicking ad screaming. Dees and the rest of the ODSTs had also left shortly after the marines had gotten word about the board's decision, so now the platoon had the entire building to themselves. Mixer had quickly set up the platoon's table of division, she had platoon command plus command of the first section when the platoon was split in half while Donnelly took the second section. When each section broke up into it's own two squads, Mixer had first, Kostoff second, Donnelley third, and the fourth went to Sergeant Ryan. And now each squad inhabited a room meant for an entire platoon, needless to say they were happy about that..

It was oh seven hundred standard military time, but for them the sun was just starting to peak over the horizon. That meant that most of the platoon was in the mess hall, sitting down to breakfast when Matt Kostoff walked in. He kept a strait face as he moved through the sea of tables, but if anyone was paying close enough attention they would have seen a little twitch of his lip, a suppressed smile. No one knew it but he was glad to see everyone mingling together, not just in their own squads. He spotted the Lieutenant, Donnelley, and Ryan discussing something at a table on the far side of the mess.

"Good morning." He greeted, nodding to each of them.

"Glad to see you're awake Matt" Donnelley said waving for him to sit in the open space next to him. "We were just discussing the training schedule."

"Yeah, didn't You say the General called us shock infantry? What does that even mean?" Ryan asked looking at the others. No one seemed eager to answer him.

"It means," Mixer said after taking a sip of coffee "that we'll have to move quickly and hit the covenant hard, most likely as a spearhead for an offensive. Other than that I have no idea what he has in mind for us."

"After what we've been through I don't think its a good idea to put us through a meat grinder again. At least not after only two months." Ryan said.

"If you step back and look at our situation clinically, it makes sense. We all had a psych eval but most of us are still here and being sent back to the front lines. Why? Even after living through that nightmare?" Donnelley said in a matter of fact tone before eating a fork full of scrambled eggs.

"They are not sure if we are fit for duty. By using us as, I'm assuming, an unofficial commando unit our stability will be challenged. If we crack we at least did it blowing the hell out of some alien bastards. But if we don't, and we survive, the UNSC still has some good fighters to use." Kostoff finished for him.

Ryan though about that for a few seconds then nodded "I can see that. So we're disposable now?"

"Weren't we always?" Kostoff asked, finally allowing himself a small smile. All four of them chuckled at that old soldier's joke. "So, training?"

"We have the Playground open to us from ten to four today, but there is a wooded area north of here that no one will be using either." Mixer said. "The big question is what do we want to do. Eric thinks we should get their blood pumping and work on their coordination in the obstacle course, and I believe that we need to be good at moving over rough terrain quickly."

"Now that I know, somewhat, what we are going to be doing I think the obstacle course is the best bet." Ryan chimed in before he noticed something behind Kostoff and stood up to check it out.

"Where is he off to?" The Sergeant asked turning around.

"This may get interesting." Mixer whispered.

…

Jonah Nelms looked disdainfully at the eggs as he pushed them around on his plate. He had gotten there before almost anyone else and had eaten about half of the food on his plate before he lost his appetite. Then as the rest of the platoon filled the mess he played with his food, watching it get cold thinking. He thought about eating a little more, he thought about what would be on the schedule for the day, he thought about home. But mostly he was thinking about why most of the marines from the battalion were all in one platoon. Most of the answers didn't make any sense, and those that did weren't helping his disposition. So he was happy for the distraction that Bailey offered him.

"You going to finish that?" The big marine asked.

"No." Nelms said, sliding his plate across the table to his spotter. Bailey had come in later than everyone save Sergeant Kostoff and had been covered in sweat. Now Nelms watched as he inhaled the food like he hadn't eaten in days. "Jesus John, slow down. How the hell can you even eat that much anyway?"

"I'm hungry." he said with a shrug. "I go out running before anyone wakes up, three or four kilometers out and the same back. And you know it isn't good to run on a full stomach."

"The same goes for an empty one. And I understand you need to move," He said remembering what Bailey was like cooped up on a ship for over a week, not a pretty sight."but you might want to save your energy. You never know what we're going to be doing during the day."

The marine sitting a few seats down overheard them and scoffed. Nelms read the name on his fatigues :KRAY. "'you might need to save your energy'" He mocked. "This coming from the guy who's job is to lay down and sit still?"

"There is a lot more to shooting than that. But I guess the DIs finally figured out that they couldn't teach you how to even hold a rifle properly so they told you to use it like a club." Nelms sneered.

"I can shoot just as good as you can." Kray said, his face reddening. "You, on the other hand, don't know shit about entering a building."

"I bet I could do better than you Jarhead."

"Why not put some money on that?" Someone asked from behind him, causing Nelms to jump. Looking back he recognized Sergeant Ryan quickly enough. The NCO had a smile on his face that said he wasn't joking, but at the same time he wasn't bring the hammer down on this argument. "Ok, fifty credits says I can both shoot better than you and clear a building faster."

"One hundred says that I can do each better than you." Kray said levely, staring him in the eye.

"You're on."

"Good." Ryan said turning around. "I think we have our answer Lieutenant!"

…

After breakfast Mixer called the platoon to the obstacle course on base that was lovingly referred to as "The Playground". The course itself was a long, flat roofed, two story building with a series of rooms filled with pop-up targets and a lot of cameras. Leading to the "front" was a small parking lot that backed up to the broken automatic doors and on the other side was a rifle range that had targets preset to one hundred, two fifty, five hundred, and a thousand meters. Off to the side of the building was a polycrete building that served as an armory and monitoring station, it was here that the platoon gathered.

"Ok," Mixer addressed the group "put simply we are going to be running through the playground for a few hours. But first, the entertainment. I will now hand this over to our master of ceremonies."

Donnelley glared at her before talking. "We have ourselves a little _friendly _competition. Kray, Nelms, get up here and listen. Each of you will will be given full kit and M52B armor." Nelms groaned at the mention of the heavier armor and Kray just smiled. "One of you will start in the parking lot with an M7 while the other stays here, not watching the course to be fair. You will clear the firs floor and once you reach the stairs on the far side go up and clear the second. Then you get to the roof, take the fire escape down, run to the range where an S2 is waiting and shoot all four of the targets that are set up."

"Sound fair?" he asked. Both of them nodded. "You have your money ready?" They each pulled out a bundle of credits. "Good, then both of you give it to Ryan. Now who wants to go first?"

"I will" Nelms said almost before Donnelley had finnished.

"Alright, suit up and wait in the parking lot."

…

Nelms worked his shoulders in the armor once more. Since the start of the war with the covenant a lot of marine units were shifting to lighter, more flexible armor. And while this did cut down on protection, Nelms was used to having only a chestplate, helmet and light pads. The M52B variant was the heavier light armor with a larger chestplate, larger shoulder protection, as well as extra elbow, knee and shin armor. While still a _light_ armor it was much bulkier and heavier than what he was used to.

The M7 sub-machine gun he was holding wasn't familiar either. In basic he had been given an MA5B just like everyone else and once he had earned his marksman badge he tried his hand at sniper rifles. He had been told that the M7 had a lot more kick than an assault rifle and went through ammunition a lot faster. And to make matters worse, the magazine was actually put in the left side of the gun and he didn't know how to reload it properly. At least he still had a magnum at his hip, more than likely he would be using it.

He looked over at the Gunny and nodded to say he was ready, so the NCO pushed the start button on the computer monitoring the course and pointed to the door. Nelms sprinted for the door and almost didn't notice the target pop up in a window. He had to slow down almost to a stop in order to aim and he pulled the trigger, sending the target back to the ground as well as wasting six shots that missed high because of the barrel rise. With that target down he sprinted through the half open door into a dim room and almost ran headlong into a target as it sprang up. Startled, he pulled the trigger again and put far too many rounds into the target than he should have. There were still three more up in the room and he dropped them each with much more controlled bursts.

Once all the targets in the room were down he rounded the corner to the next room and dropped the three targets that were up and waiting for him. On the other side of the room was a flimsy wooden door that he had to get through, feeling speed was prudent here he dropped his weight and ran shoulder first at the barrier. He didn't break the door from it's bolt or take it off the hinges, it splintered and broke causing him to fall to the ground on the other side. Looking up from his prone position he saw five targets that were "standing" around a card table.

He aimed at the one on the far left but missed high and left, this time forgetting what he had just learned about controlling the weapon. His next burst was on target and so were the four after that. But as the last target fell and he started to pick himself off of the floor he noticed that the last target had been blocking a sixth standing in the far corner. He dropped that one and crossed the room to another door. After the fiasco with the first door he decided to open it the normal way and turned the knob.

The knob had to have been tied to some sort of trigger because as he turned the knob the ceiling behind him dropped right onto the card table in a cloud of dust. Nelms spun on his heels and saw a nearly circular hole in the above him with three more targets ringing it from the floor above. He shouldered the M7 and pulled the trigger. It coughed out one last round and clicked empty, so he dropped the SMG and unholstered the magnum on his hip. Two rounds hit the target on the right, another three hit the one in the center and two more for the last one. He dropped the clip, reloaded and held the gun ready by his head while he opened the door.

The next room was empty save one rickety looking staircase pushed against the far wall. This must be the back of the building. So he climbed the stairs and quickly rounded the banister. This room was large and open with windows lining the walls to his left and right. A few meters away from the stairs and to his left was a hole in the floor and four dropped targets, but there was nothing else. Suddenly the door on the far side opened and a target slid forward on a rail strait at him. Holding the pistol in a two handed grip Nelms put a single round in the center of the target. But as it fell another one entered the room so he similarly dropped that one as well as the one that followed it.

Nelms sprinted for the door and found himself in another long room filled with cots, much like a barracks. On the far side of the room was an archway were a target on either side of the arch would swing into the open area then swing back behind the wall. So he crouched behind one of the cots, resting his hands on the frame for stability and took aim. The target on the right swung out, he missed that shot and couldn't re-aim before it swung back. He managed to clip the one on the left as it moved and fired two of the massive rounds in quick succession in when the right one came back into view.

He reloaded and stood, moving through the arch. There was another staircase leading up, this one bathed in sunlight. Nelms ran up it, nearly tripping on a few of the steps. The roof was devoid of pop-up targets and he could see the fire escape on the opposite end. Reaching it he holstered his pistol and was tempted to slid down it's length but grabbed onto the ladder's top rung and swung himself over. It took him a while to get down and he jumped off three rungs from the bottom, nearly falling and ran to the rifle range.

He went prone immediately, and scooted up to the sniper rifle. He took aim at the one hundred meter target and hit it in one shot. On the two hundred and fifty meter he noticed that his round went lower than he had intended, but it was still a hit. On the five hundred he finally realized that he was breathing heavily from all the running and all the movement was going into the rifle. He held his breath and squeezed the trigger, another hit. With the thousand meter target he took nearly five seconds to take account of his movements and pulled the trigger one last time. To his amazement the target exploded, signaling that he he finished the course.

After reloading the rifle Nelms walked back to the armory, panting like a dog. He didn't hear what any of the others had to say. His heart felt like it was going to explode and the magnum had done a number on his wrist. Sergeant Ryan and Bailey were standing near the screen that the course's computer would display his data on. Without a word to either of them he leaned in and took in the information. A total of eighty shots fired, seventy-six in the playground and another four on the range, with twenty-six targets out of twenty eight.

"Hey, where did I miss two targets?"

"There was one behind the door by the first staircase and another one hiding under the bed in the barracks." Ryan explained. "But that was a very good run none the less. I'll be honest, you're going to give Kray a run for his money. Speaking of which, he's starting."

Nelms looked at the proverbial wall of screens and watched the Private enter the building and smoothly take out the first five targets with short bursts. Nelms had to admit that Kray was moving far faster than he had, and was checking more of the space. A wave of embarrassment washed over him as the marine ducked through a man sized hole in a door, and did his best to ignore the chuckles. The ceiling had been reset and startled Kray just as much as it had him, but Kray still had a few rounds left in the SMG and took care of the targets quickly. He reloaded, found the target Nelms had missed, went up the stairs and breezed through it. Now things got interesting when he managed to hit both the closer targets each in one shot. He missed on the thir and had to reload after hitting it. And as Nelms had done, he slowed down on the last one and hit it in two more shots.

When Kray had come back to the armory everyone seemed anxious to see his score, there was no clear winner just by watching. The Private read through his score carefully and looked at Donnelly, the only one to read both so far. The Gunny cleared his throat.

"Nelms, you had a marvelous attempt at the Playground and picked up a score of 1187 there. Unsurprisingly you did amazingly on the range with a score of 350. Kray You blew through the course faster and cleaner than our sniper with a score of 1360, however on the range you scored 175. Even if we totaled tour scores, which we aren't, you're practically tied. And since the bet was about who could do better in both challenges, neither of you won. So, by the powers vested in me by our esteemed Lieutenant, I call this a draw. Sorry boys."

Nelms looked to Kray, who just shrugged and gave a little smile that said 'what can you do?' and gave a shrug of his own. With a difference of two points total, neither of them really cared. Kray could shoot a rifle, not as well as he could but he could shoot, and Nelms had managed to almost clear a building solo. They were proud of their scores, even if they didn't say it. But the rest of the platoon was didn't seem too happy with the decision and they were screaming at the Gunny, causing the Lieutenant to get their attention.

"Ok, settle down and quit bitching. No one won so go to Ryan to collect your bets when you have time. Now we really start the day. I want the rest of you to all run the course that our two volunteers just did, solo at first and then by squad. And Donnelley," she said placing a hand on his shoulder "I think we would be facing a mutiny if you didn't go first"

…

**Ok, so this little one was just for funzies to cap of the first section of their story. I just loved the idea of having some of them run a course, not to mention I wanted to write a little more on the action before I closed this one down.**

**The platoon will be back fighting on more worlds in my next story: The Lost Platoon: Shock Infantry.**

**Thanks for reading.**


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